Saba Javed

Pakistan’s imports of agricultural and other chemicals declined by 36.99% year-on-year to $6.9945 billion during July-March of the current fiscal year, reports WealthPK quoting data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). On a year-on-year basis, the imports of agricultural and other chemicals decreased by 36.60% to $622.422 million in March 2023 from $981.801 million in March 2022.

On a monthly basis, the imports increased by 14.01% to $622.422 million in March 2023 from $545.960 million in February 2023. Compared to the same period last year (2022), when fertiliser imports totalled 1,120,522 metric tonnes worth $675.198 million, the imports were 786,947 metric tonnes costing $536.129 million during the period under review, representing a 20.60% decrease.

On a year-on-year basis, fertilizer imports decreased by 26.39% in March 2023 compared to the same month last year. The exports in March 2023 were recorded at $23.870 million against $32.429 million in March 2022. Fertilizer imports increased by 443.61% month-on-month to $23.870 million in March 2023 compared with $4.391 million in February 2023. In addition, the country imported around 27,324 metric tonnes of medicinal products worth $1.0785 billion in the first nine months of the Fiscal Year 2022-2023, down from 42,999 metric tonnes worth $3.7333 billion imported during the same period of the previous year.

The imports of medicinal products increased by 59.38% during the study period compared to the same period of the previous year. Nevertheless, compared to 24,621 metric tonnes worth $135.718 million during the same period last year, the imports of insecticides increased by 8.64% during the last nine months to 27,179 metric tonnes worth $147.438 million. On a month-on-month basis, the imports of insecticides increased 70.54% to $20.749 million in March 2023 from $12.167 million in February 2023.

In the meantime, the imports of insecticides increased by 27.32% to $20.749 million in March 2023 as against the exports of $16.296 million in March 2022. To meet local needs, other agricultural chemicals worth $3.4664 billion were imported from July through March 2022-2023 against $4.2323 billion during the same period of the previous year. On a year-on-year basis, the imports of other agricultural chemicals decreased by 42.58% during the study period. On the other hand, the monthly imports of other chemicals increased by 1.10% to $298.239 million in March 2023 from $295.008 million in February 2023.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk