Pakistan''s rice exports witnessed a decline of around 14 percent during the last fiscal year due to lack of research and non-availability of new seeds. Few years back, rice was the 2nd largest foreign exchange earning commodity with $2 billion exports, however, now it ranks fifth as the rice trade is facing severe crisis and exports continue to decline.

Exporters said that future of rice exports is depending on the upcoming crop. If crop will be better and achieve higher yield than some increase is expected in exports otherwise current fiscal year will remain very challenging for rice trade.

According to exports statistics, Pakistan''s overall rice exports posted a 13.63 percent decline during the last fiscal year (FY17). Pakistan rice exports stood at $ 1.607 billion in July-June of FY17 compared to $ 1.86 billion in same period of FY16, depicting a decline of $ 253 million.

In term of quantity, rice exports posted a 17.13 percent decline in July-June of FY17 compared to the same period of last fiscal year. The country exported some 3.519 million tons rice (Basmati and non-Basmati) during the last fiscal year against the 4.246 million tons a year earlier. During the period under review, basmati rice exports fell 3 percent, while non-basmati rice exports declined sharply by 17 percent.

Commenting on lower exports, Mahmood Moulvi, chairman Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) said that government''s policies had directly hurt the rice exports as Pakistani rice was costly in international market due to high input costs, overvalued currency and excessive taxes on rice sector.

He said that during the last fiscal year, Pakistan''s rice crop achieved a low yield due to lack of research and unavailability of new or quality seeds. "Rice crop size was less than expectation and broken quantity was over 40 percent as against standard ratio of 25 percent during the last season," he said.

Chairman REAP further said that high input costs had made Pakistan basmati rice completely uncompetitive in the world market particularly with the Indian basmati rice. He said that government had not fulfilled its commitment while rebate that was granted to other exports, was not given to the rice sector.

"Iran is emerging an important and lucrative basmati market for Pakistani exporters and we can export 0.5 million tons basmati to Iran, however, despite lifting of the US sanctions still banking channel had not resumed between the two countries," he said. Chairman REAP has urged the government to take immediate steps to increase the production of rice by introducing the farmers new hybrid seeds, etc, so that farmers can achieve higher yield.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017