March 22, 2017
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said food trade gap is widening which will surpass two billion dollars by the end of this fiscal.
Pakistan recorded a surplus of $570 million in 2013 and surplus of $ 380 million in 2014 but situation changed in 2015 when a deficit of 470 million was recorded which jumped to 1.39 billion in 2016, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that increasing food trade deficit can be contributed to economic growth, better buying power, increasing population, reduced performance by food sector, better profit in imports as compare to exports etc.
He said that country is importing raw, semi-finished and finished foods goods in large quantities while India and China have emerged as favourite destinations for import of fruit and vegetables.
The business leader said that import of tomato from India worth three billion rupees was more than total food imports from China dominate by rice and maize.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the number of Chinese nationals would continue to surge because of the economic corridor which will also boost import of food items from China.
He noted that export of rice has been increased by ten percent in volume but earning have been reduced by 8.6 percent which suggests that Indians are importing Pakistani rice and selling it under their own brand names.
Policymakers should take note of the situation because rice accounts for 45 percent of country’s total food exports.
He said that we are exporting meat to six Islamic countries which must be diversified.
