Islamabad [Pakistan], April 4 (ANI): In the January- March quarter of FY25, maize exports saw a drastic 87 per cent decrease, prompting the Ministry of Food Security to direct the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) to enforce phytosanitary regulations, as reported by Dawn.

During this quarter, the country shipped 53,725 tonnes of maize to 12 nations, a stark contrast to the 419,432 tonnes exported to 34 countries in 2024. In the same quarter of 2023, maize exports totaled 147,057 tonnes to 46 countries, according to Dawn.

Official statistics revealed that maize exports to Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, France, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Madagascar, Romania, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam dropped to zero in 2025, as cited by the Dawn report.

A senior official from the Food Security Ministry has voiced concerns that the decline in maize exports coincided with Pakistan's surplus of six million tonnes, following a total production of 9.6 million tonnes, as noted by Dawn.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Director of Quarantine, Ishfaque, released long-awaited Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on March 26 for maize exports to Vietnam, according to Dawn.

The key SOPs entail registering exporters' warehouses with the DPP, setting up Khapra beetle monitoring traps, storing maize in perforated polypropylene bags rather than jute bags, maintaining container hygiene, reserving specific storage areas for maize, and ensuring sanitation and disinfestation of warehouses under authorized protocols, as emphasized by the Dawn report.

Insiders in the industry attribute the sharp drop in exports to the government's ineffective policy choices, including the appointment of non-technical bureaucrats to critical roles, noting that the DPP was led by Allah Ditta Abid and Muhammad Tariq Khan between 2023 and 2024, a period during which Pakistan's agricultural and food exports reached a historic USD 8 billion, marking an increase of about 37 per cent from 2002, as highlighted by Dawn. (ANI)