Food exports fall by over 5% in FY20

July 17, 2020 (MLN): The trade volume of food exports decreased by 5.33% to $ 4.361 billion, contributing 20.38% of the total exports during FY20 when compared to $ 4.607 billion recorded in FY19.

The food group accounted for 12.16% of the total imports during Jul-June FY20, showing a decline of 4.31% YoY to clock in at $5.423 billion.

The decline in food exports is attributed to the ongoing global slowdown due to the current COVID-19 crisis, resulting in a disruption in supply chains and demand.

According to the latest data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on export receipts by commodities, the export bill of food group witnessed a decrease of 9.16% YoY and 4.96% MoM to stand at $305 million in the month of June 2020. Similarly, the imports of the food group into the country were recorded at $520 million in June 2020, depicting an increase of 19.71% YoY and 23.54% MoM when compared to the same period of last year and last month respectively.

On the exports side, Rice and fruits were the major sources of Foreign exchange earnings as their exports valued at $2.17 billion and $431 million, depicting a growth of 5.12% and 3.80% YoY respectively during FY20 wherein the major growth of foreign earnings was recorded in Basmati rice, up by 24.63% YoY. However, Fish & Fish Preparations, one of the main export food commodities, witnessed a decline of 7.32% YoY to $406 million during FY20.

The exports of vegetables and meat and meat preparations surged by 27.95% and 25.77%, YoY, to $299 million and $305 million during the period under review, the PBS data revealed.

On the import side, the data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed the products that significantly contributed to declining import bills are milk and dairy products as its imports dropped by 29% YoY, amounted to 60,127 metric tons at $162 million during FY20.

One of the major imported food commodities is Palm Oil which recorded a negative meagre growth of 0.17% YoY, worth a total of $1.84 billion during FY20. while a sharp decline was seen in tea imports as It dropped by around 6.81% YoY to stand at $532 million during FY20 when compared to the same period of FY19.

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