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Food minister cites limited value addition, quality issues and post-harvest losses as challenges
ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain held a virtual meeting with a United Arab Emirates’ delegation to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the date sector.
The meeting was attended by senior officials of the food ministry, including Federal Secretary Ameer Muhyuddin, who shared insights on potential areas of collaboration and investment. The UAE delegation was represented by Simisola Nicola Abere, who appreciated Pakistan’s initiatives to promote sustainable agricultural development.
The federal minister highlighted Pakistan’s huge potential for date production and export, noting that the country was among the leading date-producing nations of the world.
Pakistan’s annual production has crossed half a million tonnes, with the fruit cultivated on more than 100,000 hectares of land. The major producing regions are Balochistan and Sindh, where popular varieties such as Aseel, Muzawati, Dhakki, Rabbi, Begum Jangi, Karbala and Khudri are grown.
The meeting participants discussed Pakistan’s current export performance, which had recorded consistent growth, with the UAE, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and Turkiye among the main destinations. The minister pointed out that Pakistan’s exports, valuing at over $50 million, had shown remarkable expansion, while shipment data also reflected a significant rise in export volumes and diversification of international buyers.
Rana Tanveer also underscored the challenges confronting the date industry, including the country’s earlier dependence on a single export market, limited value addition, quality, and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) compliance issues, post-harvest losses and gaps in packaging, branding and cold chain facilities. Despite these challenges, Pakistan has a vast untapped potential for increasing productivity and value-added exports through innovation, investment and technology transfer.
Federal Secretary Ameer Muhyuddin emphasised that proposed collaboration with the UAE would help in establishing modern date processing plants, improving value addition and enhancing Pakistan’s competitiveness in the global market.
Representing the UAE, Simisola Nicola Abere announced that the UAE would expedite the process for establishing three processing plants in Pakistan as part of the cooperation framework. She added that both sides would formalise the collaboration through the signing of a memorandum of understanding.
