Pakistan Rice Output To Reach 6.54 Mil MT

According to Pakistan’s Food and Agriculture Ministry, the country's rice output is expected to rise to 6.54 million MT in the 2008/09-crop year, up from 5.50 million MT the previous year.

Pakistan is the world’s fifth-largest rice exporter and it has removed a minimum export price on basmati and non-basmati rice after expectations of a bumper crop. Pakistan’s eight-month-long rice season runs from April to November. Final estimates for the crop are due in late December.

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