Pakistan expects China to import more rice this season

Islamabad: Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam has said that Pakistan expected China to import more rice from Pakistan this season.

“We expect China and other rice exporting countries will purchase more,” the minister remarked at a joint news conference here with Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry here.

Imam pointed out that the record production in four major crops would earn billions of dollars foreign exchange for the country, besides generating additional income of around Pakistani Rs 399 billion for the farmers.

He claimed there was a record production in four major crops including wheat, cotton, rice and sugarcane while the yield of maize also witnessed increase, though comparatively little. “Cumulatively, there will be around 37 percent growth,” he added.

Imam informed that the production of wheat increased by 2.2 million tons to 27.5 million tons. “Had we imported this addition wheat, the country will have to spend around over US $ 900 million,” he claimed.

The minister mentioned that the production of cotton crops was expected to reach to 9 million bales as compared to 7 million bales of last year, an increase of 2 million bales. Imam contended that if the additional 2 million bales were exported, it would earn around US $ 750 million for the country.

Likewise, Fakhar Imam explained that the rice crop was also witnessing record production of 9 million tons and there were also 2 million tons carry forward stock. “So, the country is in position to export around 8 million tons when local consumption of 3.5 million tons is extracted,” he added.

Last year, he recalled, the country had exported US $2.1 rice and this time, the exports could reach US $4.75 billion, projecting an increase of US $2.62 billion extra exports of rice. “The maize production also witnessed a little increase and reached 9 million tons from 8.9 million tons,” he elaborated.

Imam underlined that the sugarcane exports were expected to grow from 81 million tons to 89 million tons.

The minister underscored that the agriculture production had increased due to the prudent policies of the government, which ensure an encouraging policy framework.

He lauded efforts of provincial governments, particularly Punjab for this achievement and commended farmers for playing their role in achieving this milestone.

Earlier, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry announced that with the increased agriculture production, the farmers would get additional income of Pakistani Rs 400 billion.

Elaborating, he calculated that there would be an additional income of Pakistani Rs 118 billion from wheat crop, Rs136 billion from cotton production, Rs 46 billion from rice output, Rs 96 billion from sugarcane and Rs 3 billion income from maize.