ISLAMABAD – Despite the damage done to agriculture production in the summer floods, the export of various food products registered an increase of 17.92 percent during last five months of the current fiscal year.
The export of rice increased by 11.86 percent during the period from July to November 2010 compared to the same period of 2009. About 1.3 million metric tonnes of the rice was exported from the country valued at $779.049 million. According to the data collected by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, exports last year garnered $696.456 million.
Meanwhile, the export of Basmati rice was also boosted by ten percent with about 403,113 metric tonnes of basmati rice worth $355.107 million was exported during the previous five months of current financial year compared to the total quantity of 376,717 metric tonnes sold at $319.97 million in 2009.
The export of other varieties of rice also registered an increase of 12.61 percent during the first five months of current financial year, the data revealed. It indicated that about 960,922 metric tons of other varieties of rice were exported from the country during the last five months which brought an additional $423.094 million to national foreign exchange reserves.
Meanwhile, about 884,164 metric tonnes of the product was exported during July to November 2009; this contributed $376.480 million to the economy. The export of fish and fish preparations also witnessed an enormous rise of 34.30 percent with about 50,512 metric tonnes being sold in the international market fetching roughly $109.057 million in export earnings during the period.
At the same time last year, about 37,095 metric tonnes of fish and fish preparations were exported with a total value of $81.210.
