ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s food exports are faring well in the global food trade as compared to overall share of Pakistani exports in the global trade. The major subsectors in food sector are rice, fish and its products, fruits and vegetables, spices, animal feeds, seeds, molasses, guar and guar products, tobacco, wheat etc.
A well placed source at Ministry of Commerce (MoC) told Customs Today that the Pakistan’s exports of food items in 2015-16 were $ 3.4 billion. Pakistan’s share in the global market of food products was 0.22%, which is better than Pakistan’s share in overall global trade which was 0.14%.
The source said that the reasons behind the low share in the World Food Market include low productivity, post harvest losses, high cost of doing business, shortage of gas and electricity as well as use of old techniques of production.
However, the source said that MoC had introduced a number of incentives for food sector to enhance the Pakistani exports of food items to other countries. The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) participated in 19 international exhibitions related to food sector during 2015-16. TDAP sent seven (7) trade delegations during 2015-2016 to promote exports of Agro Food Products from Pakistan in the world market.
Moreover, a number of other incentives were also introduced Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF 2015-18) to boost the share of Pakistani food exports in the international trade. These incentives include, 50% support on the cost of imported new plant and machinery for agro processing SMEs in specified under-developed regions.
100% mark-up support on the cost of imported new plant and machinery on all Pakistan basis. The support for import of parboiling machinery has been included in the Technology Up-gradation Support envisaged in the STPF (2015-18) to enhance the export of parboiled basmati rice
Similarly, the source said that general initiatives related to overall export enhancement envisaged in the STPF (2015-18) included exploring new markets for diversification of exports especially in Africa, Latin America and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
A three-pronged strategy of trade diplomacy in the multilateral, regional and bilateral arenas for increasing market access and an inter-ministerial working group comprising Ministries of Science & Technology, Commerce and National Food Security & Research will be constituted to work on quality standardization and harmonization of Pakistan standards. A matching grant would be provided to SME in export sectors under Brand and Certification Development Support.
