Despite fall in dollar's value against Pak rupee, the country's rice export to the world markets grew by $280 million during July-Mar 2013-14, exporters said on Friday. "Over 2.5 million tons of rice has been exported since the rupee appreciated against dollar," said a rice trader, Hashim Sharja Wala. He said: "World's demand for Pakistani rice is growing in spite of a surge in rice prices on the global market."
Pakistan exported $1.666 billion of rice during July-March 2013-14 up by $280 million (20.19pc) and in terms of volume, the country's rice export went up by 0.189 million tons (8pc) to 2.683 million tons in July-March 2013-14, figures released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed.
Hashim said: "The international price of non-Basmati is $370 per metric ton and the price of Basmati rice ranges between $800 per metric ton and $1400 per metric ton, depending on its quality." According to him, the major buyers of Pakistani rice are: United States of America and Sri Lanka. However, the country's rice export plunged by $29.709m (9.11pc) to $216.649m in March 2014 as compared to the commodity's export of $238.358m in February 2014, the PBS's report further said.
Meanwhile, some exporters claimed that the export of rice was still at a halt as the export of new crop was not in progress and international rate of rice has increased and, as such, buyers were not in favour of purchasing rice from Pakistan. An official of Rice Exporter Association of Pakistan (REAP) said: "Exporters are not receiving new contracts due to high prices." They are dealing under old contracts which were signed before depreciation of dollar," he added. Describing India as `the biggest competitor', he said: "If we will not cope with this situation then India may capture the international market.