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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s food import bill rose 13.81 per cent year-on-year to $7.848 billion in the first 10 months of 2025-26, mainly driven by higher purchases of sugar and edible oil.
The gap between food imports and exports has widened during the review period. This has increased the country’s dependence on imported food items in the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, exports of raw food products decreased 32.02pc to $4.190 billion in 10MFY26 from $6.164bn a year earlier.
The drop in exports was broad-based, with volumes declining across nearly all major food categories, except meat, which showed some resilience during the period.
Overall rice exports in April dropped 9.33pc year-on-year. However, exports of basmati rice surged 56.12pc in value and 62.36pc in quantity. By contrast, exports of non-basmati shrank by 27.97pc in value and 24.16pc in quantity in April.
