Rice exports up by 43pc in July, August

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Gohar Ali Khan
KARACHI: Pakistan’s rice exports have registered an increase of 42.55 percent during July/August this year amid robust demand in the international markets, experts said.
Provisional statistics of export receipts released by the SBP on Tuesday show that the rice exports soared to $360.74 million during the first two months of fiscal year 2010/11. The export in the same months last year remained $253 million.
Commodity experts estimated that about 750,000 tons of rice was damaged by the floods. “The country produced 6.7 million tons of rice during the previous year, while a record 4.6 million tons of both basmati and non-basmati rice were exported to African countries, Sri Lanka, and gulf countries,” said Shamsul Islam, a rice exporter in Karachi.
Pakistan, the world’s third-largest rice exporter, is capable of producing 6.7 million tons annually, including 0.3-0.4 million tons in stock carried forward. The country’s consumption is estimated at about 2 to 2.5m tons.
Islam said the country would get about 5-5.5m tons of rice this year because of the devastating floods, which washed away about 0.75m tons. He urged the government to take a number of steps to cover the losses caused by the floods, including reviewing rice export policy.