ISLAMABAD – Food exports from Pakistan have witnessed an increase of 33 percent in January and 12.95 percent during the first seven months of current fiscal year. Overall food exports have been recorded at $2.035 billion during July-January (2010-11) as against the exports of $1.801 billion during July-January (2009-10).
The food items that contributed towards positive growth of exports included wheat. The other items that showed upward trend in exports during the period under review were included tobacco and vegetables, exports of which increased by 143 percent and 33.32 percent respectively.
Similarly, the exports of rice increased by 2.28 percent, fish and fish preparations by 31.01 percent, spices by 20.44 percent, meat and meat preparations by 52.65 percent while the exports of other food items grew by 30.81 percent during the period, a website relating to agriculture news reported while quoting data of Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS).
It said food exports in January 2011 stood at $466.387 million against the exports of $351.154 million in January 2010 and $335.014 million in December 2010.
On the other hand, textile exports surged by 25.88 percent in July-January (2010-11) by growing from $5.917 billion during July-January (2009-10) to over $7.44 billion during the first seven months of current year.
Export of petroleum and coal group increased by 26.38 percent, while the exports of other manufacture group went up by seven percent during the same period.
It may be mentioned that the government has declared 2011 as the year of exports and the Ministry of Commerce and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) have devised a comprehensive strategy to further boost exports.
