Pakistan could export up to 4.0 million tonnes of rice in the 2008/09 financial year but government intervention is making rice more expensive and that is hurting overseas sales, exporters said on Wednesday. Rice exports from Pakistan, the world's fifth-largest rice exporter, rose 4.6 percent to 1.1 million tonnes in the first six months of the financial year to December, compared with 1.05 million tonnes in the same period last year, official data showed.
But exports fell more than 50 percent in January from the same month in 2008 following a government decision to buy rice from traders and enter the export market, according to two exporters. Government data for January exports has not been released.
"We will consider ourselves lucky if we are able to export 3.4 million tonnes this year," said Abdul Rahim Janoo, chairman of the private Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP). With a bumper crop expected of more than 6.5 million tonnes, from 5.50 million tonnes the previous year, the government decision to buy rice and paddy was aimed at helping farmers and maintaining stability in domestic prices.