KARACHI, April 23: With the start of gram whole crop on a good prospect, some Pakistani traders have secured initial export orders from India to ship 400 to 500 containers of the commodity. The export of around 10,000-12,000 tons of gram whole or desi chic peas to India will get underway from next month at the rate of $300 per ton.

Adviser to the Karachi Wholesalers’ Grocers Association (KWGA), Anis Majeed told Dawn on Saturday that the traders had planned to send 200,000 tons of gram whole this season mainly to India. “They are also targeting Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for the export.

He pointed out that initially India had shown interest in procuring Pakistani gram whole and hopefully more orders were likely to come in the coming days. He said the export to India was likely to kick off from the first week of May. Mr Majeed said the traders were likely to get same price from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Pakistan will be able to fetch $60,000,000 from the gram whole export if the traders achieve the target of 200,000 tons this season. The country is expecting a bumper crop of gram whole ranging between 900,000 and one million tons this season as compared to 550,000 tons last year. This has encouraged the traders to ship the surplus quantity to various foreign destinations.

Last year, Pakistan had to import 50,000 tons of gram whole from Australia, Ethiopia and Canada to meet the local consumption. The situation this year is quite reverse and is in favour of both the local market as well as for export prospects.

As a result of bumper crop prospects, the price of gram whole has declined to Rs16 per kg at the wholesale market, from 25 per kg two weeks back.