Pakistanis drank tea worth over $336 million in six months!

Tea imports into the country witnessed an increase of 5.53% during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to last year’s corresponding period, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed.

The tea imports into the country increased up to $336.423 million during July-December (2023-24) compared to the imports of $318.798 million in July-December (2022-23), according to PBS data.

In terms of quantity, the imports surged by 9.12% as the country imported 139,751 metric tonnes of tea during the period under review compared to the imports of 128,068 metric tonnes.

Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the tea imports during December 2023 decreased by 16.80% to $58.869 million from last December’s $70.759 million.

The imports of the commodity; however, witnessed an increase of 9.81% in December 2023 when compared to the imports of $53.608 million in November 2023, according to PBS data.

The overall food group imports into the country during the first half of the current fiscal year witnessed a decrease of 19.48%.

The food imports during July-December (2023-24) were recorded at $3,957.188 billion as against the imports of $4,914.278 billion during last year.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s overall merchandise trade deficit contracted by 34.29% during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The trade deficit from July-December (2023-24) was recorded at $11.148 billion as against the deficit of $16.965 billion in July–December (2022-23), showing negative growth of 34.29%.

During the period under review, the exports increased by 5.17% to $14.981 billion compared to the exports of $14.244 billion during the corresponding period of last year, according to the latest PBS data.

On the other hand, the imports narrowed by 16.28% and were recorded at $26.129 billion compared to $31.209 billion last year.