Food imports dip 9.85% in 10 months

ISLAMABAD: The country’s food imports dropped by 9.85 percent to $4.7 billion in first 10 months of current fiscal year against the imports of $5.216 billion recorded during same period of the year 2017-18.

According to trade data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday, the tea import however recorded a nominal increase of 0.61 percent as the country imported $495.957 million worth of tea during first 10 months of current fiscal year while during same period of last year, the tea import stood at $492.966 million.

The detail shows that import of palm oil witnessed a sharp decrease of 10.99 percent during July-April (2018-19) as it went down to $1.54 billion from $1.73 billion in July-April (2017-18).

Similarly, import of pulses also fell to $432.54 million in the corresponding period of current fiscal year against the import worth of $442.7 million in same period of last year thus showing a decrease of 2.3 percent.

The import of milk, cream and milk food also witnessed a decline of 10 percent to $199 million from $221.26 million in same period of last year, whereas the import of dry fruits and nuts also plunged to $37.89 million in July-April (2018-19) against the import worth of $97.1 million in same period of the preceding year.

Spices’ import during the period under review stood at $129.3 million against $136.8 million worth of import during same period of last year thus showing a decline of 5.5 percent.

Likewise, the import of soybean oil also declined sharply by 34.3 percent to $79.12 million from $120.4 million, while the import of sugar decreased by 25.46 percent to $3.24 million against the import worth of $4.35 million in July-April (2017-18).

The import of other miscellaneous food commodities also went down by 9.41 percent to $1.786 billion in first 10 months of current fiscal year against the import of $1.97 billion in same period of last year.

On yearly basis, the import of food commodities and products dropped to $441.088 million in April 2019 against $485.86 million in same month of last year, showing a decrease of 9.22 percent whereas on monthly basis the import showed a growth of 12.3 percent as the imports during March 2019 stood at $392.824 million.