According to the Pakistan's Ministry of Food and Agriculture, there has been wide spread damage to Pakistan's rice crop. Due to the devastating floods, Post revises its 2010/11 rice production estimates for Pakistan to 4.4 MMT, a decrease of 32%. Pakistani rice exports for 2010/11 are similarly reduced to an estimated 2.3 MMT, a decline of 36%. Rice is Pakistan's second largest export product and the reduction in rice exports is expected to have implications for its balance of payments.
Nearly 2.8 million hectares or 11% of Pakistan's total agricultural area is planted with rice. When the floods started, the process of transplanting rice was almost complete in the Sindh province, while the Punjab province had 80-90 percent of its rice crop already transplanted. Contacts now estimate that approximately 700,000 hectares of Pakistan's rice crop are partially or completely submerged under water. The flood waters are not expected to recede quickly and a portion of the rice crops were already at the flowering stage.
Due to the destruction caused by the monsoon floods, Post revises Pakistan's 2010/11 rice production to 4.4 million metric tons (MMT), a decline of 32%. 2010/11 Pakistani rice exports are similarly reduced to an estimated 2.3 MMT, a decline of 36%. Production figures for 2008/09 and 2009/10 have also been adjusted according to the latest government data.