LAHORE: Pakistan's rice exports are continuously facing decline since the start of current financial year 2020-21 as these were registered at 838,770 tons during July-October 2020 as compared to 1,176,285 tons in the same period of the year 2019. The figures show a decrease of 374, 495 tons or 28.69 percent during these four months, claimed Hamid Malik, a rice sector consultant while talking to Business Recorder here on Monday.
Basmati exports were registered at 45, 290 tons in October 2020 as compared to 64, 378 tons in October 2019, showing a decrease of 29.65 percent while non-basmati exports also decreased to 174,520 tons in October 2020 as compared to 252,844 tons in the same month of the year 2019.
"We were expecting a rebound in Pakistan non-Basmati export due to arrival of the new hybrid non-Basmati crop. The decrease may be attributed due to high domestic price of non-Basmati in Pakistan as compared to India, said Hamid Malik.
He said China imported 60,000 tons of non-Basmati in October 20 despite border standoff. Apart from China, Indonesia, Malaysia & Benin remained top three buyers of Indian non-Basmati.
Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) Senior Vice Chairman Malik Faisal Jahangir confirmed that decline in exports and termed it because of three basic reasons. He said that the movement of shipments is restricted because of COVID-19. He said that exports of not only Pakistan but of India had also declined because of this pandemic.
Secondly, he said during the last year Pakistan led in rice exports and India had to face a shortfall of 300,000 metric tons in exports. However, they had a bumper crop last year and this year too. "So, they have huge supplies and their prices are 20-22 percent less than Pakistan's rice leading to getting more demand from buyers than Pakistan," he claimed.
Malik Faisal also termed the absence of payment mechanism between Pakistan and some countries as another factor behind low exports. He said that India manages its payments through Chinese currency with some countries including Iran, the so REAP has no benefit of it. He said lack of patronage by the government to REAP is another factor that we could not tackle the issue immediately.
He, however, said that they had approached the Pakistani trade counsellors posted abroad to push buyers in their respective countries for Pakistani rice. He disclosed that due to efforts of Pakistani trade counsellor in Spain, they are expecting a huge order from that country where exports earlier were negligible. "If the government starts supporting REAP through Export Development Fund (EDF), we can give marvellous results," Faisal concluded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020