ISLAMABAD, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan has exported rice worth around 2 billion U.S. dollars during the last fiscal year (FY), June 2017-July 2018, local media quoted officials as saying on Monday.
Officials from the country's Trade Development Authority said the country's rice export hit the 2-billion-U.S.-dollar mark for the first time since the FY2014-15 as it achieved the target of 4 million tonnes of the crop yield this year.
During the last fiscal year, exporters not only fetched huge orders from a number of countries, including even the rice-exporting Indonesia, but also managed to sell rice at a higher value per tonne, taking advantage of stable market prices and focusing on exports of branded rice in consumer packaging, the report said.
Average per-tonne export price of rice in the last fiscal year also rose to around 1,040 U.S. dollars, from below 950 U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2016-17. Rise in international prices of rice coupled with a higher demand of Pakistani rice and local rice exporters investment on processing and packaging of rice also contributed to the achievement.
Exporters and officials agreed that for sustaining growth in export earnings of rice, the share of higher-priced "Basmati rice," a good quality of rice cultivated mainly in Pakistan and India and sold at a good price in international market, must be increased.
