Pakistan's food exports surge 21.7 pct in first 4 months of FY 2024-25

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's food exports witnessed a significant increase of 21.7 percent during the first four months of the current fiscal year from July 2024 to June 2025 as compared to the same period last year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Food exports during the cited period were recorded at 2.365 billion U.S. dollars during July-October 2024, up from 1.943 billion dollars during July-October 2023, according to the data on the PBS website on Wednesday.

The statistics showed that the sharp rise in food exports was primarily driven by rice, which saw an impressive 52.5 percent increase after it surged from 710.789 million dollars last year to 1,084.193 million dollars during the ongoing fiscal year.

Other categories also contributed positively, including fruits, which increased by 7 percent to 116.649 million dollars, vegetables by 36.7 percent, tobacco by 365 percent, sugar by 413 percent, and meat and meat preparations by 4.7 percent.

However, some food products recorded a decline in exports, including fish and fish preparations, leguminous vegetables, spices, oil seeds, nuts, and kernels.

In October 2024, food exports grew by 12.8 percent year-on-year, reaching 748.435 million dollars compared to 663.664 million dollars recorded in October 2023. While on a month-on-month basis, food exports increased by 23.8 percent, rising from 604.752 million dollars in September 2024.

The PBS report added that the overall merchandise exports from Pakistan increased by 13.6 percent during the July-October period of 2024 as compared to 9.590 billion dollars in the same period last year.