Browse Data and Analysis

Pakistan is the 21st largest export market for U.S. food and agricultural-related products, with U.S. exports surpassing $1.38 billion in 2020. The top U.S. exports to Pakistan were cotton, soybeans, pulses, tree nuts, dairy products, planting seeds, dairy cattle, and forestry products.

Cotton continues to be the only genetically engineered (GE) crop approved for cultivation and use. Regulatory uncertainty prevents life science companies from seeking approval for any other GE crops, and the National Biosafety Committee is still developing regulations on imports of GE commodities intended for food, feed, and processing.

Biosafety regulatory efforts in the Caribbean remain stalled, and it is yet to be seen whether countries can regain the will and secure the international financing required to fully implement their National Biosafety Frameworks in a harmonized manner.

Due to excellent conditions during harvest, which followed a good growing season, seed cotton collection has progressed well, and deliveries to ginners are far out-pacing last year.

Driven by more area and better yields, centrifugal sugar production in 2021/22 is forecast at 6.7 million tons, up 11 percent over the current year’s revised estimate.

Eager to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind it, the Caribbean is doing all it can to attract visitors and kick-start its tourism sector in 2021.

The 2021/22 rice production forecast is reduced from 8.2 to 7.9 million tons due to lower-than-average monsoon rains.

Despite lower area, 2021/22 production is forecast to reach 5.3 million bales, an 18 percent increase over the disappointing 2020/21 crop.

Pakistan’s MY 2021/22 wheat production is estimated at a record 27 million metric tons (MMT).

Caribbean imports of consumer-oriented products shrunk from $2.3 billion in 2019 to $2.1 billion in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet Caribbean retail grocery sales grew by an estimated 6 percent during the same period.

Marketing Year (MY)2021/22 wheat production is forecast at 26.0 million metric tons (MMT), three percent higher than last year’s wheat production of 25.2 MMT.

Pakistan’s MY 2021/22 sugar production is forecast at 6.8 million metric tons (MMT), up 14 percent from the current year’s revised estimate, due to significant increases in area and sugarcane yields.