Food imports surge by 50% YoY during April'21

May 21, 2021 (MLN): The trade value of food exports from the country in April’21 stood at around $387million, showing an increase of 14.03% YoY from $339.4mn in April 2020. The increase in exports may be attributed to the restoration of economic activities as the global economy reopened with the easing of virus-related restrictions.

However, on a sequential basis, the group witnessed an 18.96% MoM decline in export earnings.

The overall contribution of this group remained 17.78% of the total exports during July-April FY21 which stood at $3.72billion, dropped by 0.42% YoY when compared to the same period last year, as per the latest data revealed by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Commodity-wise, Rice remained to be the major source of foreign exchange earnings in April 2021 as its exports valued at $189.5mn, down by nearly 15% MoM and YoY.

The export of fish & fish preparations stood at $47.87mn, depicting a decline of 8.95% MoM. However, on a YoY basis, they witnessed a remarkable growth of 72.89%. 

On the other hand, the export of meat and meat preparations depicted an increase of 4.65% MoM and 36.39% YoY. Similarly, export of vegetables witnessed upsurge by 2x YoY whereas, on a MoM basis, it came down by 32.84% to stand at 31.76mn. Likewise, total fruits’ exports declined by 62% MoM, while exports of fruits increased by 56.8% compared to the same period last year.

On the import side, the total import bill of the food group amounted to $778mn, marking an increase of 49.97% on a YoY basis against the same period of last year due to increased demand after the lockdown situation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Collectively, the group accounted for almost 15.4% of the total imports during 10MFY21 as per the data released by PBS, up by 53.93% YoY to clock in at $6.9bn.

During the month of April 2021, the data further revealed that imports of Palm Oil valued at $281.26mn, showcasing a growth of 48.2% YoY and 2% MoM.  The import bill of milk and dairy products positioned at $13mn, during the said period, dropped by 38.5% MoM and 26% YoY. Likewise, the import of tea also dipped by 5.19% MoM and 0.5% YoY to stand at $52.9mn.

It is pertinent to mention that during the month, import of wheat remained zero in the presence of a sufficient amount of locally available wheat.

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