According to the latest figures released by Pakistan's commerce ministry, rice exports from Pakistan have declined by an average 15 per cent during the first quarter (July-September) of the fiscal year 2007-08 over the corresponding period of last year.

The statistics showed that negative growth in export rice, carpet, leather, engineering and footwear in the first two months (July-August) was around 10 per cent this year over the same period last year.

Export of non-basmati was down by 39.05 %. However, export of basmati rice rose by 20.53 % due to greater demand of the commodity in international market.