ISLAMABAD: In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, Pakistan’s exports of rice went down by 15.82%, mostly because floods in Sindh destroyed paddy fields. This happened at the same time that the world economy was slowing down.
From July to January of this year, the total value of rice exports went down from $1.28 billion to $1.08 billion. Export earnings, especially from basmati rice, have stayed the same for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is that rice sent to Afghanistan and Iran under the barter trade system is priced too low.
Chela Ram Kewlani, who is the head of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap), said that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data did not show that basmati rice was sent to Iran and Afghanistan. But he said that the crop of long-grain white rice (not basmati rice) in Sindh has dropped by 40%.
Because of this drop in production, Mr. Kewlani said that the drop in non-basmati exports is fair. But he didn’t agree with the government data that said the value and amount of basmati exports were going down.
PBS data showed that the amount of basmati exported dropped by 22.95 percent, from 410,207 tonnes in 7MFY22 to 316,055 tonnes in 7MFY23.
In the first seven months of FY23, exports of non-basmati rice fell by 24.94%, from 2.17 million tonnes to 1.62 million tonnes. Even though exports were way down, prices for both basmati and non-basmati rice went up in a way that had never happened before on the domestic market.
Haseeb Khan, Senior Vice Chairman of REAP, said that people have spent money to stockpile rice after the real estate market slowed down.
He also said that rice stocks have been negative for the past couple of years, which has caused domestic prices to go up. Rice has become a good place for investors to put their money because other industries, especially real estate, have slowed down.
Mr. Khan said that basmati is mislabeled as low-quality rice when it is sent to Iran and Afghanistan. He also said that at the border stations, the amount of rice is also not reported. He also said that Pakistan’s customs should look into how the value and type of rice sent to these two countries were not fully declared.
Rice seeds
There are eight places in the world that are known for their basmati rice. Six of these places are in Pakistan and two are in India. But there are now problems in the country, especially with rice seeds.
This rare earth in six districts where the best basmati rice in the world can be grown is being used up by housing projects that never stop on GT Road in Punjab province. But nothing was done by the government in this area.
The former head of REAP said that inflation also affects prices in the country. He said that the price of rice on the international market has also gone up, which affects the price of rice in the United States.
