Pakistan Floods Destroy $3.27 Billion in Rice, Cotton and Sugar Production
September 28, 2010 Pakistan’s deadliest floods ruined crops worth 281.6 billion rupees ($3.27 billion), destroying rice, cotton and sugar, said Farm Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal.
The country lost 2.39 million metric tons of rice and 10.4 million tons of standing sugar cane, the minister said in an interview today in Islamabad. The nation may also import 2.8 million bales of cotton, he said.
By ripping out crops, stores and 4,000 kilometers of roads, the floods boosted food prices and may push annual inflation to 20 percent, according to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The inundations affected 20 million people, killing more than 1,800 and damaging 1.9 million homes, the government said. The losses helped push rice in Chicago to the highest level since May and boosted cotton to the most expensive in 15 years in New York.
“There will be pressure on exports,” Rakesh Singh, a rice trader at Emmsons International Ltd., said.
Exports from Pakistan, the third-biggest rice supplier, may plunge 35 percent to 3 million tons in the year started July 1 from 4.6 million tons the previous year, according to Jahangir.
The country, the third-largest cotton user, may import 50 percent more this year, said an industry official September 21. Imports may reach 3 million bales, up from 2 million last year, according to Muhammad Arshad, a vice president at the Pakistan Central Cotton committee, a government-supported organization.
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