MIRPURKHAS: Lakshman Das spent years growing Rhodes grass on his five acres of farmland in Pakistan’s southern Mirpurkhas district. But with exports becoming increasingly unprofitable as the conflict between the US and Iran drives up shipping costs, the 40-year-old has uprooted his entire fodder crop and is now preparing the land for wheat.

The US-Iran war has caused the cost of insuring vessels against risks stemming from the conflict to soar. As a result, prices have increased and exports have become less profitable.

And fodder farmers like Das are feeling the sting of the war.

“There was no rate for grass. That is why I uprooted the Rhodes grass,” he told Arab News, watering his fields in Sindh’s Jhurbi village.

“Now, I am sowing wheat over five acres of my land.”

The shift threatens a growing non-traditional export sector that earns Pakistan more than $100 million a year from animal feed, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ (PBS) data. As farmers in the south replace export-oriented fodder with other crops, Pakistan risks losing foreign exchange and a market it has spent years developing.

Pakistan’s fodder exports fell 49 percent to $15.5 million in July-September 2026, from $30.1 million in the previous quarter, according to research by brokerage firm Topline Securities.

“Before the war, we used to get the right price. Now, after the war, we are getting a lower price,” Das said.

Irfan Mahmood, an animal feed expert and manager at fodder exporter GRJ Agro Pakistan, which cultivates more than 700 acres in Sindh, said farmers were now receiving almost half the prices they earned before the conflict.

“This time, the average rate is from Rs27,000 to Rs30,000 ($97-$108) per ton,” he told Arab News.

“Last year, our average was Rs56,000 ($202) per ton.”

GRJ Agro, which supplies fodder to Pakistani exporters and the Dubai market, has already cleared about 150 acres of Rhodes grass. Mahmood said the company was converting around 100 acres to wheat and another 40 to 50 acres to sugarcane. He said GRJ Agro was retaining some land for Rhodes grass in case export conditions improve.

SHIPPING COSTS SURGE

Sarfaraz Ali Junejo, chairman of the Pakistan Hay Association (PHA) and chief executive of GRJ Agro Pakistan, said freight charges for a container had climbed from Rs200,000-Rs250,000 ($722-$903) before the war broke out in February to Rs1.5 million-Rs1.6 million ($5,418-$5,781), which included insurance.

“The biggest change is that our shipping costs have significantly increased because of the war,” he said.

According to data from the shipping industry, freight rates from Pakistan to key Gulf ports, including Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Muscat in Oman and Kuwait, have surged 320-fold since February for 20-foot containers to as much as $8,000.

Rates for 40-foot containers have jumped 220-fold to as much as $11,000. The disruption has left some exporters facing extra costs even before their shipments leave Pakistan.

Junejo said 50 of his company’s containers were stranded at port after a vessel operated by French shipping line CMA CGM, which was bringing empty containers for export cargo, was hit in a war zone. He did not disclose the vessel’s name or when it was attacked.

“We are facing an additional demurrage for that,” he said, adding that GRJ Agro could face up to Rs3 million ($10,824) in demurrage charges.

’WILL THEY CONTINUE?’

Pakistan grows fodder on about 150,000 acres, mostly in Sindh, according to the PHA’s data.

“The grass that has been uprooted so far, is very little,” Junejo said. “About 5 percent has been uprooted.”

He warned the situation could worsen if shipping conditions did not improve by March, when farmers decide on their next planting cycle.

“The biggest question is, the farmers who did not earn, will they continue it or not,” Junejo said.

Sindh’s agriculture authorities acknowledge the difficulties facing growers.

“The farmers who grow the fodder, Rhodes grass, are in a lot of trouble,” said Imran Ali Kumbhar, deputy director at the agriculture extension department in Mirpurkhas.

’They have a lot of expenses to export.”

Kumbhar said the provincial government was providing financial help to small farmers who possess one to 25 acres of land during the Rabi season, which typically runs from October to April.

“The government of Sindh is giving a subsidy of Rs4,000 [$14.46] per acre to farmers. We are subsidizing them for the wheat crop,” he said.

Shankar Talreja, head of research at Topline Securities, said the outlook for fodder exports remained uncertain because overseas demand is concentrated in the Middle East region.

“Which is under uncertain environment right now because of the higher oil prices and obviously, the economy of Middle East is also contracting,” Talreja said.

Das, meanwhile, hopes wheat and other seasonal crops that he plants will recover some of the income he lost to the export slowdown.

“We will plant other small crops as well,” he said. “So that we can make some profit.”