The overall food exports during July-March (2012-13) stood at US$ 3.432 billion against the exports of US$3.081 billion recorded during July-March (2011-12), according to latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The food commodities that contributed in positive growth of trade included fish and fish preparations, exports of which increased by 4.40 percent during the period under review by going up from $222.611 million last year to $232.395 million this year.
Similarly, exports of fruits increased from $300.188 million to $319.619 million, showing increase of 6.47 percent while the exports of vegetables increased from $106.386 million to $171.219 million, showing positive growth of 60.94 percent.
Exports of spices increased by 45.54 percent from $33.071 million to $48.130 million while the exports of oil seeds, nuts and kernals increased by 21.42 percent from $20.225 million to $ $24.557 million.
Exports of sugar from the country increased from $2.471 million to $297.625 million, showing surge of 11,944 percent while the exports of meat and meat preparations increased by 28.38 percent, from $122.717 million to $157.539 million.
Exports of other food products increased from $634.354 million to $716.637 million, showing increase of 12.97 percent, the PBS data revealed.
Meanwhile, the food commodities that witnessed negative growth in trade during the period under review included rice, exports of which decreased from $1.509 million to $1.401 million, showing decline of 7.12 percent.
Similarly, the exports of leguminous vegetables (pulses) decreased from 3.033 million to $1.533 million and tobacco from $20.253 million to $15.582 million, showing decrease of 49.46 percent and 23.06 percent respectively.
Exports of wheat decreased by 56.99 percent from $106.490 million to $45.798 million, the data revealed.
On year-on-year basis, the food exports in March 2013 increased by 41.41 percent to $524.616 million against the exports of $368.382 million during march 2012.
On month-on-month basis, the food exports in March 2013 increased by 28.61 percent when compared to the exports of 407.905 million in February 2013, according to the data.
It is pertinent to mention here that the country's trade deficit decreased by 4.86 percent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year as exports expanded by 5.36 percent and imports witnessed positive growth of 0.39 percent.
The overall exports from the country increased from $17.1 billion in July-March (2011-12) to US$18.02 billion during July- March (2012-13) while the imports increased from $33.285 billion last year to $33.414 billion during the current fiscal year.
According to the data, the trade deficit during the fist nine months of current fiscal year stood at $15.34 billion against the deficit of $16.2 billion last year, showing negative growth of 4.86 percent.