Chai craze! Pakistanis consume over $336 million worth of tea in 6 months

Tea imports into Pakistan experienced a 5.53% jump during the first six months of the current fiscal year, indicating a continued love affair with the brew, data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) 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.