Islamabad, Dec 16 - Pakistan has four million tonnes of rice for export and will export 1.5 million tonnes immediately, Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Muhammad Gondal said on Monday.
"Today the president ... gave instructions that the export of 1.5 million tonnes should be managed immediately," Gondal told a news conference.
Pakistan is the world's fifth-largest rice exporter.
It removed a minimum export price on basmati and non-basmati rice on expectations that rice output in the 2008/09 crop year would rise to 6.54 million tonnes, from 5.50 million tonnes the previous year.
Gondal also said Pakistan could be facing a sugar shortage and would import after determining how much was needed.
"The president gave instructions today that we will import raw sugar," he said.
Government and industry officials said in October a decision on raw sugar imports would be delayed until December.
Pakistan Sugar Mills Association Chairman Iskandar Khan said this month imports of raw or refined sugar may not be needed in the financial year to June, with carryover stock and output from the new crop sufficient to meet demand.
Pakistan's sugar output in the 2008/09 financial year is expected to fall to between 3.5 million and 3.6 million tonnes, from 4.7 million tonnes the previous year.
Millers had asked the government to import up to 400,000 tonnes of raw sugar, with at least half of that in November when the crushing of the new crops started.