The food exports from the country on year-on-year basis witnessed increase of 0.57 per cent during February 2016 compared to the corresponding month of the last year.
The food exports during February 2016 were recorded at $423.270 million compared to the exports of $420.891 million during February 2015, according to official figures compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The commodities that contributed in positive growth of food exports during the month under review included rice, exports of which grew by 4.95 per cent.
Similarly, the exports of fish and fish preparations increased by 13.44 per cent, tobacco by 143.53 per cent, spices by 16.76 per cent, sugar by 24.82 per cent while the exports of meat and meat preparations increased by 36.98 per cent.
The commodities that witnessed negative growth in exports during the month under review included fruits, exports of which declined by 1.9 per cent, according to PBS data.
Likewise, the exports of wheat decreased by 94.18 per cent, exports of oil seeds, nuts and kernels declined by 79.41 per cent during the month and vegetables by 26.89 per cent.
On month-on-month basis, the food exports increased by 15 per cent in February 2016 compared to the exports of $368.069 million in January 2015. The food commodities that witnessed positive growth in February 2016 over January 2016 included vegetables with 10.25 per cent, tobacco 9.68 per cent, wheat 50 per cent and sugar 341 per cent while the exports of meat and meat preparations increased by 30.8 per cent.
The commodities that witnessed negative growth in trade during the month under review over January 2016 included fish and fish preparations, exports of which declined by 9.88 per cent, fruits by 18.29 per cent, spices by 7.21 per cent and the exports of oil, seeds, nuts and kernels decreased by 47.07 per cent.
It is pertinent to mention here that the overall food exports from the country witnessed negative growth of 10.61 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year. The overall food exports during July-February (2015-16) were recorded at $2.654 billion compared to the exports of $2.969 billion in July-February (2014-15), the PBS data revealed. The trade deficit during first eight months (July-February), 2015-16 increased by 4.22 per cent as the exports decreased by 13.26 per cent while the imports witnessed a slight decrease of 4.95 per cent as compared to July-February (2014-15).
