Pakistan's domestic rice prices remained firm during the last week on robust local demand and flagging supplies, dealers said on Tuesday. They said the country had exhausted most of its export-quality stocks, especially of IRRI variety of rice and the export season was also drawing to its close.
"We have already exported around 2.9 million tonnes of rice and now there are hardly any stocks left to meet old commitments," said a Karachi-based exporter.
"IRRI-6 exports are almost coming to an end while domestic prices have risen to levels where we can hardly compete."
Dealers said exporters were filling previous orders and most of the shipments are container-based.
"There is only one bulk cargo ship carrying 10,000 tonnes of rice for Africa," another exporter said, adding other shipments are for smaller quantities.
"Exports of Basmati to the Middle East and of brown rice to Europe will continue slowly," he added.
Dealers said domestic prices were likely to stay high because of the depleted stocks. They said the market activity would pick up in September but much would depend on the size of the crop, that has been hit by a shortage of water.
The government has estimated a harvest of 5.7 million tonnes from the current crop but traders said they expected it to be much smaller from the previous harvest of 5.8 million tonnes.
Traders said the total 2006/07 rice harvest is expected to be about 4.8 to 4.9 million tonnes. Annual domestic consumption is about 2.3 million tonnes.
Pakistan's crop year runs from April to November. Sowing normally starts from mid-April with harvesting in September.
Pakistan exported a record 2.9 million tonnes of rice in the year to June 2, up more than 28 percent from last year. Rice export revenues have exceeded $1.1 billion this year, beating the previous high of $933 million set last season.
Pakistani traders were quoting export prices of $246-$248 per tonne for the IRRI-6 variety, about $16 higher than other countries.