Maria Imran 
pakistan food exports seafood and rice shine
Seafood, Meat, and Rice Sell the Food Basket of Pakistan that Boosts Exports a Bit.
Pakistan, selling its food to the world saw a bit of a lift in the first nine months of this financial year. Think of it like the country’s kitchen doing slightly better business, mainly thanks to strong sales of things like tasty seafood, good quality meat, and fragrant rice. The latest numbers from PBS, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, tell this story.
Imagine boats bringing in more fish and other seafood-and that’s what happened exports in this area rose over 8% between July and March, meaning Pakistan shipped out a good 151,787 metric tons of fishy goodness, bringing in a good $322.9 million. It is quite an amount, more than the previous year, both based on sales and the income generated.
Then there’s meat. Pakistan also sold a bit more around 1% more meat and meat products to other countries, making $391.1 million from 90,578 metric tons. So, a small tick, but a positive one.
So far, that was it. But the great one seems to be rice, particularly the good old Basmati. The freshest grains to gain in exports: Basmati rice! Pakistan managed to sell 663,980 metric tons and earned $677 million! Compared to the same time last year, this marks a dramatic increase. The world is truly hungry for Basmati from Pakistan.
It is not that all types of rice-the picture is somewhat rosy. However, the income from the sale of this type of rice decreased with the marginal increase in other types (albeit just over 4 million tons) sold by Pakistan. They earned $2.08 billion, which is less than last year when they made $2.3 billion from similar volumes shipped.
