Pakistan's wheat exports crossed 1.7 million tons mark during last fiscal year 2010-11 because of bumper crop and rising demand in the international market.
Exporters told Business Recorder on Friday that after lifting the two-and-a-half years ban on wheat export, the country received a very encouraging response from international market and got export orders of over 2 million tons from different countries, especially from Bangladesh, Gulf and Far East. Cheapest and easy availability of wheat in the domestic market pushed the exports to this level, they added.
Since lifting of the ban, on average, 0.25-0.3 million tons wheat is being shipped every month, they said, adding that at present there has been some slowdown due to decline in prices of wheat on international front. In term of quantity, 1.707 million tons wheat has been exported during 2010-11 (FY11). This is the second time when wheat exports have crossed 1.7 million tons mark", exporters said. The export in FY11 is also 48,469 percent higher than export in FY10. Wheat export in FY10 stood at just 3,516 tons. Earlier, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and private sector jointly had exported some 1.8 million tons of wheat in 2001-02. At that time, highest wheat export target was achieved with the support of government's subsidy. In 2001-02 the government spent millions of rupees on payment of subsidy to export excess commodity.
According to Federal Bureau of Statistics, in terms of volume, after rice, wheat has become second largest exported commodity and wheat exports have surged to $587 million in FY11 compared with $ 0.735 million in FY10, depicting an increase of 79,776 percent. In terms of rupee, over Rs 50 billion worth wheat has been exported.
"We have exported wheat without any government subsidy and with lifting of ban not only excess commodity has been exported but the country has also earned some 600 million dollars foreign exchange" exporters said.
However, they showed concern over the decline in commodity price on international front. Initially, wheat was being exported at $330-340 per ton. However, after the arrival of new crop, wheat prices in world market have been on decline, and currently stand at less than $300 per ton. Due to decline in the wheat prices, the export of commodity has slowed down, they added.
"Pakistani wheat is best quality and as per international standard as it has 11.0 to 11.5 per cent protein content and perfect for Bangladesh, Gulf, Far East and Myanmar markets", they informed.