ISLAMABAD: The tea imports into the country witnessed an increase of 38.87 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) of the current fiscal year as compared to the same period of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.
Imports were recorded at $141.965 million during July-September (2020-21) as against imports of $102.230 million in July-September (2019-20).
In terms of quantity, imports increased by 51.33pc during the period under review by going up from 43,279 metric tonnes last year to 65,495 metric tonnes during the current year.
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, tea imports increased by 46.10pc during September 2020 when compared to the imports of September 2019; imports during September this year were recorded at $54.017 against the imports of $36.972 million in September last year.
Meanwhile, on month-on-month (MoM) basis, tea imports increased by 8.54pc in September 2020 as compared to $49.767 million in August 2020.
Moreover, imports of overall food commodities during the first quarter months of the current year increased by 56.04pc by growing from $1,097.368 million last year to $1,712.376 million during the current year.
It is pertinent to mention here that the overall merchandise trade deficit increased by 2.02pc during Q1FY21 as compared to the deficit of Q1FY20; the deficit was recorded at $5.804 billion as compared to $5.689 billion deficit last year.
