Pakistan Rice Exports Drop

Industry experts have predicted that Pakistan's rice exports in the 2008/09 financial year will be less than 3 million MT compared with 3.3 million MT over the same period last year mainly due to high domestic prices.

Pakistan exports fell during the November-January period following a government decision to buy rice from traders and enter the export market. Government data shows that rice exports fell nearly 8 % in the July-February period from a year earlier. Exports fell more than 50 % in January from the same month in 2008.

Rice accounts for about 8 % of Pakistani exports and 12 % of gross domestic product.