ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is seeking to increase its rice exports to the United States (US) to 100,000 metric tons this financial year, up from 80,000 metric tons last year, after President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on regional competitor India, the head of the country’s rice exporters association said this week.
Pakistan ranks among top ten rice-producing countries in the world. According to the latest Economic Survey of Pakistan, the country’s total rice production stood at 9.72 million metric tons in the outgoing fiscal year that ended in June.
In Pakistan, more than 60 percent of the harvest is surplus and available for export, according to the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP). The country exported over 5.544 million metric tons of rice, valued at $3.203 billion, worldwide from July 2024 till May 2025.
India, on the other hand, exported 234,467 metric tons of rice to the US alone in the fiscal year 2023-24, valued at $0.31 billion, according to the Indian commerce ministry. However, Trump last month imposed a 50 percent tariff on India, citing New Delhi’s imports of Russian oil and its trade barriers on US, and reduced the tariff on Pakistan from 29 percent to 19 percent.
