Tea imports down 6.81 percent

ISLAMABAD: Tea imports witnessed a decline of 6.81 percent during the fiscal year 2019/20 as against the same period of the last fiscal year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Monday.

The tea imports into the country were recorded at $532.776 million during FY 2019/20 as against imports of $571.690 million in FY 2018/19, it added.

In terms of quantity, the tea imports witnessed a decline of 0.63 percent during the period under review by going down from the imports of 222,732 metric tons last year to 221,319 metric tons during the FY 2020.

The imports of overall food commodities during the period under review declined 4.31 percent, as these contracted from $5668.013 million last year to $5423.949 million during the current year.

Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the tea imports increased 107.42 percent during the month of June 2020, compared with the same month of the last year. The tea imports in June 2020 were recorded at $59.684 million, compared with the imports of $28.775 million in June 2019. On month-on-month basis, the food imports increased 36.58 percent in June 2020, compared with the imports of $43.698 million in May 2020, the PBS data revealed. The country’s merchandise trade deficit witnessed significant reduction during the fiscal year 2019/20 and declined 27.11 percent, compared with the previous year.