Pakistan's share in global market of food products better than its share in overall global trade: Senate told

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Commerce Engr. Khuram Dastagir on Thursday told the Senate that Pakistan's share in the global market of food products was 0.22%, which is better than it's share in overall global trade i.e. 0.14%.

Replying to a question, he said the size of global food export in 2014 was US$ 1486 billion and Pakistan's exports of food items in 2015-16 were US$ 3.4 billion.

He said Pakistan's share in the global market of food products was 0.22%, which is better than Pakistan's share in overall global trade i.e. 0.14%. It implies that Pakistan's food exports are faring well in the global food trade, when compared with the overall share of Pakistani exports in the global trade, he added.

The minister said the major sub sectors in food are rice, fish and its products, fruits and vegetables, spices, animal feeds, seeds, molasses, guar and guar products, tobacco, wheat etc.

The reasons behind low share in the World Food Market are low productivity, post-harvest losses, high cost of doing business and shortage of gas and electricity.

He said Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) organized participation in 19 international exhibitions related to food sector during 2015-16 and TDAP sent seven (7) trade delegations during 2015-16 to promote exports of Agro Food Products from Pakistan in the world market.