KARACHI: Pakistan and Malaysia agreed to set up a formal mechanism for continued engagement on agricultural trade, beginning with a joint virtual meeting in November, after a series of high-level talks in Kuala Lumpur on rice exports, halal certification and food security.
Federal Secretary for National Food Security and Research Amer Ali Ahmed and Federal Secretary for Commerce Jawad Paul led the Pakistani side, joined by High Commissioner to Malaysia Syed Ahsan Raza Shah. They met Dato' Dr. Sirajuddin bin Suhaimee, group CEO of BERNAS, along with Malaysia's Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) and Datuk Seri Isham bin Ishak, secretary general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
At the BERNAS meeting, the Pakistani delegation discussed expanding rice exports to Malaysia while meeting the company's quality standards. The delegation included Pakistan Agricultural Research Council Chairman Dr. Syed Murtaza Hassan Andrabi, Department of Plant Protection Director General Yasin Murtaza, and representatives of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan. Both sides also reaffirmed Pakistan's participation in the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS).
In talks with JAKIM's director general, Ahmed discussed strengthening cooperation on halal certification standards and supply chains and easing market access for halal-certified agricultural and food products.
The two sides also reviewed progress under a memorandum of understanding between JAKIM and the Pakistan Halal Authority, signed in October, and discussed turning the framework into stronger institutional and technical cooperation.
The meeting with the Agriculture Ministry's Isham covered cooperation in the halal agri-food sector, including rice, meat, poultry, fisheries and aquaculture technologies, animal vaccines, biosecurity controls and halal gelatin supply. Both sides stressed the need for stronger institutional links and for identifying ways to ease agricultural trade and knowledge exchange.
Rice is one of Pakistan's largest food exports, but recent years have been volatile. Exports for the year ended June 30, 2024, reached about 6.01 million tonnes worth about $3.93 billion, up 61.5% in volume and 83.5% in value from a year earlier, according to the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan and industry data.
The following year, the association recorded 5.82 million tonnes worth $3.35 billion in 2024-25.
Shipments then fell sharply. Rice exports in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2026, totaled $2.291 billion, compared with $3.353 billion a year earlier, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data, and volume fell to more than 4.29 million tonnes from 5.82 million tonnes.
Basmati was steadier than the rest of the trade: 794,638 tonnes worth $843 million were exported, compared with 808,069 tonnes worth $830.6 million the year before.
Pakistan's Ministry of National Food Security and Research has blamed the decline on competition from India. The ministry said India's return to the global market, along with its free trade agreement status and a 24% subsidy to its rice sector, had hurt Pakistan's competitiveness.
On the production side, the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26 reported that rice output rose 2.8% to 9.99 million tonnes from 9.72 million tonnes, even as cultivated area fell 3.6%. Rice contributed 0.5% of gross domestic product and 2.2% of agricultural value added.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service had earlier projected lower output because of severe flooding, reducing its 2025-26 production estimate to 8.0 million tons.
Malaysia is an established buyer. In 2023, Pakistan's rice exports totaled about $2.86 billion and 4.56 million tonnes, with Indonesia, Afghanistan, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Kenya among the top destinations.
Malaysia took about 372,000 tonnes worth roughly $208 million, according to World Bank trade data. Other major markets include China, Tanzania and Saudi Arabia, according to monthly shipment data reported in early 2026.
The UAE has been a bright spot recently: its purchases rose to $84 million from $56 million in the first half of fiscal 2026, and volumes climbed to 196,351 tonnes from 71,019 tonnes.
BERNAS is Malaysia's sole rice importer on behalf of the government. It says it diversifies its import sources, with the bulk of volume coming from Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, India and Myanmar. Malaysia's annual import volume is set by the government to offset shortfalls in local production and meet stockpile requirements.
