LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan shipped more rice than Vietnam in September, 420,000 tonnes against 337,000 tonnes, according to figures from Vietnam’s foreign trade agency, as exporters held up through the shipping disruption caused by the war in the Gulf.
Pakistan also earned more per tonne, an average of $621 compared with Vietnam’s $563, helped by its mix of premium Basmati and other varieties. Vietnam is traditionally the world’s third-largest rice exporter, a position Pakistan has been pushing to take.
Hamid Malik, a rice industry expert, said the shift began in December 2025, when Pakistan passed Vietnam’s monthly export volume for the first time this millennium. Pakistan’s total rice export volumes rose 51 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year, from July to September, and earnings rose 37 per cent, he said.
He credited large carry-over stocks and an 18 to 20 per cent increase in the area planted with rice, along with readily available urea and easier farm credit.
The gains came despite higher freight rates, marine insurance premiums and delayed payments since the war began. Exports of ordinary non-aromatic rice from Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan fell by 20 to 30 per cent in the early part of the crisis, but world trade in Basmati, the premium grain of Pakistan and India, held at 6.9 million tonnes, level with 2025.
Pakistani exporters receive no minimum support price for paddy and no state-funded marine insurance or freight subsidies, and private millers buy at market rates.
