Tea imports increase 10.7 percent in July

ISLAMABAD: The tea imports witnessed an increase of 10.70 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year as compared to the same month of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

The tea imports into the country were recorded at $38.180 million during July 2020 as against imports of $34.489 million in July 2019, according to latest PBS data.

In terms of quantity, the tea imports increased by 23.95 percent during the month under review by going down from the imports of 13,535 metric tons last year to 16,776 metric tons during July 2019.

Meanwhile, on month-on-month basis, the tea imports into the country decreased by 34.83 percent in July 2020 when compare to the imports of $59.685 million in June 2020.

The imports of overall food commodities during the month increased by 82.12 percent as these expanded from $290.635 million last year to $520.560 million during the month of July.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s merchandize trade deficit witnessed a reduction of 10.24pc during the first month (July) of the current fiscal year (2020-21), as compared to the corresponding month of last year.

The country’s deficit in July 2020 stood at $1.640 billion, as against the deficit of $1.827 billion in July 2019.

During the month under review, Pakistan’s exports registered an increase of 6.04 percent, from $1.886 billion last year to $2 billion, whereas imports declined from $3.713 billion to $3.640 billion (1.97 percent).