Pakistani rice exports were thin during the past week on high domestic prices, although existing orders were being shipped, traders said on Tuesday.
The market would remain slack until new crop arrivals came on full stream in the second week of January, they added.
"The problem we are facing is the high local prices," said Haji Majeed, a rice exporter in the southern port city of Karachi. "High prices have made exports difficult."
Majeed said the market hoped prices would fall in a week or so as arrivals from the new crop accelerated. Pakistan's rice year runs from April to November, but supplies have not yet peaked.
The new crop is expected to yield 4.3-4.6 million tonnes, with domestic demand at 2.3 million tonnes.
Pakistan expects to export 1.9 million tonnes in fiscal 2003/04 (July-June), against the previous year's 1.72 million.
Traders in Karachi reported scattered export shipments, mainly to East African countries, but said high domestic prices were hurting exports.
They added a few exporters were shipping old commitments but there were no fresh orders. The main buyers of Pakistani rice are Iraq, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and several East African countries.
"Other than Madagascar and a few East African countries, I don't think we have many orders from any other part of the world," another exporter said.
Exporters were quoting FOB Karachi prices of about $182/$184 a tonne for IRRI-6 rice, unchanged from the previous week.
Dealers said 100-kg bags of IRRI-6 were quoted at 1,020/1,050 rupees in the local market, 15 rupees up from the previous week.
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