Pakistan exports of rice to China have witnessed an enormous increase in 2025, with a leap of 68.5% over the last year. During January-August 2025, Pakistan exported rice totaling $44.31 million to China, a significant increase from $26.30 million in 2024. This increase points towards the high demand for Pakistani rice in China and enhanced trade relations between the two nations.
A government of Pakistan Ministry of Commerce spokesperson clarified that most of the increase was due to exports of semi- and completely milled rice, which amounted to $33.67 million in 2025—compared to only $5.63 million in 2024. Broken rice also experienced a gain, to $7.71 million.
The experts are of the opinion that the increase in demand for Pakistani rice is because of its excellent quality, taste, and reasonable prices. This has also been supported by the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement and enhanced coordination between Chinese importers and rice exporters.
But there are fears that recent floods might jeopardize rice production. Owais Mir, CEO of Dynamic Engineering & Automation, cautioned that the floods might limit the level of exports in the next few months. He proposed that Pakistan develop value-added rice products instead of raw rice and explore using high-tech means, such as AI, to enhance farming methods. Mimicking China’s agriculture might be an eventual solution.
In another agro-development, a research in Sindh revealed that three Chinese varieties of flaxseed—Longya-10, Longya-14, and Longxuan-1—gave more promising results compared to Pakistan’s native Ilsi-90 variety. The Chinese varieties gave higher yields, plant growth, branching, and oil content, providing a solution for increasing Pakistan’s flaxseed production, which is less than that of countries such as China and Canada.
