Exports of fish and marine food have seen a sharp increase of 31% this July as compared to the same month last year. Data provided by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that the export of fish surged to a total of $18.506 million in July 2022 as compared to around $14.3 million in the same month of last year. This revenue increase was possible because the total weightage of fish caught and sold in the international market had also increased from last year’s. In the month of July 2021, a total of 6802 metric tons of fish was caught whereas in July of this year, it exceeded beyond 8000 metric tons. This, however, seems pessimistic when compared to the export volume of last month of the last fiscal year i.e., June 2022. In comparison to June, exports have decreased by almost 55% in the month of July, 2022. In terms of quantity, the fish exports declined by 54.95 percent in July 2022 when compared to the exports of 17,888 metric tons in June 2022.

Overall, exports declined by 5.17 percent in July 2022 as compared to the exports of July 2021. Exports during this July were recorded at $2,219 million against the exports of $2,340 million in July last year.

Imports also declined by 12.81 percent to $4,861 million in July 2022 compared to imports of $5,575 million in July 2021.

Overall, decrease in the number of exports and imports made the trade deficit shrink by 18.33%. Last year trade deficit recorded a gap of $3,235 million while this year trade deficit stood at $2,642 million in the month of July 2022 according to the data provided to WealthPk by the PBS.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPak