Pakistan Among World's Largest Food Producing Countries

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan's agriculture output is the 10th largest in the world. The country produces large and growing quantities of cereals, meat, milk, fruits and vegetables. Currently, Pakistan produces about 38 million tons of cereals (mainly wheat, rice and corn), 17 million tons of fruits and vegetables, 70 million tons of sugarcane, 60 million tons of milk and 4.5 million tons of meat.  Total value of the nation's agricultural output exceeds $50 billion.  Improving agriculture inputs and modernizing value chains can help the farm sector become much more productive to serve both domestic and export markets.  

Top 10 Countries by Agriculture Output. Source: FAO

Pakistan has about 36 million hectares of land under cultivation. Wheat and rice are grown on more than half of it. Fruits and vegetables each account for only about 3% of the cultivable land.  Since year 2001, the country's cereal production, mainly wheat, corn and rice, has grown about 45% to 38 million tons. Pakistan produced 6.64 million tons of vegetables and 5.89 million tons of fruits in 2001. 

Pakistan is the world’s 4th largest exporter of rice. The country's domestic production is estimated to surge 13.6% to an all-time high of 8.4 million tons in the year end June 2021, according to Bloomberg.  

Vegetable production rose to about 10 million tons and fruit production increased to nearly 7 million tons in 2015.  A little over 60% of Pakistan's agriculture consists of livestock. Pakistan produces 60 million tons of milk and 4.5 million tons of meat.  Fish production adds up to about 575,000 tons. 

Pakistan's Rising Rice Exports. Source: Bloomberg

Share of Land For Various Crops in Pakistan

Crop yields in Pakistan are low, mainly due to poor quality inputs like seeds. In addition to fertilizer and water, seed is the basic input for agriculture sector and has a major role in enhancing agriculture productivity. This needs to be a key area of focus for Pakistani policymakers working on agriculture. 

Other critical area is post-harvest handling, particularly storage and transportation that is in desperate need of improvement. Post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables due to mishandling of the perishable product, poor transportation, and inadequate storage facilities and market infrastructure account for about 30%–40% of total production, according to experts at Asian Development Bank.  

World's 5th Largest Population of Chicken in Pakistan

Improvements in agriculture inputs and modernization of post-harvest process require significant financing and investment. Growers get only a small fraction of value of what they produce, making it difficult for them to make these investments. Middlemen finance farmers and take the lion's share of profits in the value chain.  

Source: FAO via Kleffmann Group

Most of the farmers sell their produce to wholesalers via middlemen called arthis, according to an ADB report. Farmers contract out fruit orchards during the flowering stage to the middlemen (arthis), commission agent, and/or wholesalers who provide loans to the farmers over the course of production. Vegetables and fruits are transported by the same cart or truck from farms to the main markets in the absence of specialized vehicles for specific products. The same vehicle is used for many other purposes including animal transportation. Recently however, reefer (refrigerated) trucks have been introduced on a limited scale in some parts of Pakistan. In the absence of direct access of carrier vehicles to the farms, farmers gather their products in a convenient spot along the roadside for pickup. When middlemen or contractors are involved, it is their responsibility to collect and transport the produce. The unsold produce in one market is sent to other markets in the same locality. 

Date Palms in Sindh, Pakistan. Photo: Emmanuel Guddu

Investments in modernization of the agriculture production process and farm-to-market value chain will require major reforms to ensure growers get a bigger share of the value. The extraordinary power of the middlemen (arthis) as financiers needs to be regulated. This can not happen without legislation in close consultation with the growers. Improving agriculture inputs and modernizing value chains can help raise the productivity of the farm sector for it to serve both domestic and export markets better.  

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[Riaz Haq]

'Sweeter than honey': Inside the underground quest for the perfect mango
Hira Qureshi
Cherry Hill Courier-Post

https://www.courierpostonline.com/in-depth/life/food/2022/08/09/man...

The message arrives from an unknown number on WhatsApp at about 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday evening.

Hi, regarding the mangoes …

I text back quickly for clarification.

Are you the lady getting mangoes from Nauman?

Yep, she responds instantly.

My heart leaps with joy. Just a 20-minute drive away, my box of Pakistani mangoes is here.

Would my contact be a local auntie dressed in a salwar kameez (traditional Pakistani garb)? Or would she be a 20-something like me, eager to get a taste of the beloved Chaunsa mangoes that had flown across the Pacific Ocean from Multan, Pakistan? Whoever she is, I think, I'm grateful she kindly scooped up a box for me on her trip to the mango middleman — Nauman Chaudary — in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Chaudary became the middleman for mangoes in the Atlantic region when his friends and neighbors heard he was making trips to airports to pick up boxes from a mango supplier.

The West Chester resident told me about his journey to becoming the mango middleman earlier that week when I reached out for a story on how these mangos have built a local cult following.

People in his neighborhood would say, "Hey, if I get 12 boxes, we can share two" and that's how it all began.

“And then this year, we kind of ended up going a little bit further. I said, ‘OK, let's just do a little bigger project and let’s see how it works out,'" Chaudary said.

When shipments arrive, Chaudary sends out Facebook posts or WhatsApp messages for those interested in a box or three. The posts offer the brass tacks of what's in the box and when it's ready for pick up for those familiar with the magic of the mangoes. His Facebook post on a local South Jersey group is how I ended up at a young doctor’s home near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“Our next shipment of Pakistani mangoes date is July 13th IA (Inshallah or God willing), we are getting Chaunsa from Multan,” he had posted. “If anyone (would) like to order, please send me message with number of boxes. Cost of mangoes are $40 per box. Box is 2 kg, 4.4lbs, Chaunsa 5-6 pieces.”

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Waiting outside her home, my anticipation builds. My parents grew up joyfully devouring these mangos, but I had never tried them until now. My heritage was waiting in the shape of a yellow-skinned fruit right behind the door.

After about 10 minutes, the door opens and a woman in light blue scrubs hands me a medium-sized box wrapped in green tape with a quick, “Here ya go! Hope you enjoy them.”

The exchange is brief, but my excitement is palpable. I smile down at the box in my hands.

I rip the box open immediately, and my friend along for the drive notes the honey-like smell that wafts from the oval-shaped mangoes tucked in little netted cozies.

The next day, we gorge on the luscious fruit while sitting on beach towels at Stone Harbor beach.




Incredibly sweet and bursting with juice, these mangoes are a revelation. They help me understand the devotion and reverence for the natural sugar bombs grown in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh inspire and the love expressed in everything from mango kulfi (traditional ice cream) to romantic verses by famous poets like Mirza Ghalib who had a special fondness for the fruit.

The cultural significance of this glorious fruit is even referenced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In an episode of “Ms. Marvel,” Kamala Khan chats with her Nani (maternal grandmother) in Pakistan over FaceTime, and Nani gets distracted by the mango man who’s brought his cart outside her home.

The poet Mirza Ghalib is reputed to have said: “Mangoes need to have two qualities: they need to be sweet, and there needs to be plenty."

[Riaz Haq]

Last year Pakistan exported 125,000 million tonnes of the fruit. The country’s average production of mangoes is 1.8 million tonnes.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2358816/falling-mango-production

Pakistan is among the five top growers and exporters of mangoes in the world. Pakistani mangoes are much in demand in foreign countries for their taste, flavour and size. In recent years, the situation brought about by climate change has rendered the cultivation of mangoes unprofitable in various parts of the country. This is forcing cultivators of mangoes to cut mango trees on a large scale in order to switch from horticulture to agriculture.

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan eyes China to boost potato industry
Envoy says Islamabad ranks among largest potato producers in world

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2350184/pakistan-eyes-china-to-boost-p...

“Local consumption is around 4 to 5 million tons. We will have a good surplus quantity to export to regional countries,” he (Commercial Counsellor of Pakistan Embassy in Beijing Badaruz Zaman) told China Economic Net.

“We have also taken up the issue with the Chinese government. In Pakistan, we are introducing machinery from China in many processing plants.”

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Prices of fries and preserved well-shelved potatoes are extremely high compared with the potato on farm, therefore “we need to improve the whole process,” Zaman said.

He added that China has achieved a very high yield per hectare owing to its high-yielding varieties of seeds and efficiency. Post-harvest processing in China is also impressive as the country uses machinery and the process is highly mechanised.

Similar things, if introduced in Pakistan, will help the country take potato production a step further, he said.

“We are using archaic methods and too much labour is involved as the processes are manual. The main issue is the lack of mechanisation. We also need cold storage to increase the shelf life but we lack the grading machinery.”

Potato Growers Association Vice President Chaudhry Maqsood Ahmad Jutt, who is also Chairman of Potato Research and Development Board, told China Economic Net that in Pakistan, seven districts of Punjab including Okara, Pakpattan, Sahiwal, Khanewal, Vehari, and Multan contribute more than 60% of potato produced in Pakistan.

Chakwal is one of the booming destinations for potato cultivation as well, he said, adding that high production in these areas is mainly due to better irrigation facility.

“Pakistan lacks an efficient seed supply system, new varieties of seeds, technical capacity and training of farmers and it has inadequate resource allocation to seed systems,” he said.

“The cost of imported seeds is high and most farmers rely on poor quality seed due to shortage of funds, which results in poor yield and China intends to help us in all these areas.”

Jutt is convinced that China is a huge market for Pakistani potatoes because the price of potatoes is higher in China, especially from January to April while the potato crop is being cultivated in Pakistan during this period and it is available at a lower price.

He added that Pakistan already fulfills all international standards and exports potatoes to almost all continents, but he believes that with the help of China, the country can further improve the quality and per acre production.

[Riaz Haq]

China large importer of Pakistani pine nuts | The Express Tribune


https://tribune.com.pk/story/2373047/china-large-importer-of-pakist...

BEIJING:
Pakistani pine nuts’ exports to China in the first seven months of this year crossed US $41.48 million, according to the official data from the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC). Data from GACC showed that during January-July of 2022, China imported 3,770.76 tons of pine nuts from Pakistan worth $41.48 million while in the same period, China imported 11,513.7 tons of pine nuts around the world valuing about $88.020 million.

Overall, China has imported $88.020 million of pine nuts and out of that 47.12% is from Pakistan. Yar Muhammad Niazi, Chief Executive of Hangzhou Aiza Food, and Shaoxing Aiza Trading said that the export of Pakistani pine nuts to China enjoys zero tariffs and Pakistani pine nuts are classified as high-end snacks in the Chinese market, CEN reported. “The overall price of Pakistani pine nuts in the Chinese market is on the rise.

This year’s season will start in late September and our target is to export 1,500 tons to China. China is a big market and we need to do B2B cooperation to capture a larger part of this market,” Niazi said. He said that for the last two year the price remained low, valuing ¥130-140 per KG, while this year’s price is expected to go a little higher. They are now working on the value addition of this product and launching a new brand. Pakistani and Chinese governments should support Pakistani enterprises to participate in the exhibitions here to increase Pakistan’s exports to China, he added.

“China is one of the biggest buyers of pine nuts from Pakistan and even during the epidemic the Chinese government played a very vital role in having flexible policies in trade with Pakistan and that’s the reason why so far we have been successful to export pine nuts to China in huge quantity,” said Qadir Baloch, a pine nuts exporter hailing from Balochistan. Baloch, whose family has been associated with the pine nuts business for the last 55 years said that in the last few years China has become the main destination for Pakistani pine nuts and that is why local exporters are happy that they can earn a good profit from the neighbouring market

[Riaz Haq]

According to the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council, overall world pine nut production followed a growing trend in the last 10 years, in spite of its irregular nature. World pine nut kernel production reached 23 thousand tonnes in the 2017-2018 season. In the last five years, global production amounted to an average of 26.4 thousand tonnes.
In 2017-2018, China was the top producer with 39% of global production, followed by North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan with 13% each.

https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/processed-fruit-vegetables-ed....

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Most of the pine nuts in European trade are sourced from China. In addition to the many species of pine nuts produced in China, Chinese processing plants also import unshelled pine nuts from Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan and Russia, then process and re-export them as Chinese pine nuts.
European imports of pine nuts from China have almost doubled in the last five years. Imports from China increased from 5.2 thousand tonnes in 2013 to 9.5 thousand tonnes in 2017.
Germany was Europe’s second largest supplier of pine nuts in 2017. Usually, Pakistan is the second largest supplier of pine nuts to Europe. In 2017, imports from Pakistan were relatively low due to a small crop.
Out of the leading external suppliers of pine nuts to Europe, Russia showed the most significant average annual growth at 68%, thus gaining some market share from China and Pakistan. However, Russia still has a small share of the European pine nut market at around 3%.

https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/processed-fruit-vegetables-ed...

[Riaz Haq]

Import/Export Trends
Pakistan is a net exporter of nuts. The annual growth of Pakistan nuts in value between 2015 to 2019 was 12%, per year, while annual growth in quantity for the same period was 10%, per annum.

Pakistan procured 87 tonnes of nuts in 2019.

Production
The production of nuts in Pakistan was 3,185 tonnes in 2019 and is forecast to change by an average of -4.18%. The country had an estimated 3,322.00 hectares under nuts cultivation.

https://www.selinawamucii.com/insights/market/pakistan/nuts/#:~:tex....

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan ranks 17th among the top almond producing countries of the world by cultivating almond on about 10 thousand ha and producing 22 thousand tonnes.

https://www.pc.gov.pk/uploads/report/Almond_Cluster_Report.pdf

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The Pakistani pine nut has the biggest kernel size in the world and, according to FAO data, Pakistan is the fifth-largest producer of pine nuts, meeting around 15 percent of the world's demand for the dry fruit. The pine nuts grown in the Sulaiman range make up 74 percent of the country's total production.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1653714


Besides its breathtaking views, the Sulaiman mountain range, which lies between Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, is also known for the world’s largest chilghoza (pine nuts) forest on higher elevations. The 26,000-hectare forest produces around 640,000 kilogrammes of chilghozas annually, according to an estimate provided by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

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695 tons of pistachios produced in Pakistan

https://www.atlasbig.com/en-us/countries-pistachio-production

[Riaz Haq]

Al-Shaheer Corporation Limited (ASC), a major meat exporter, on Tuesday announced that it has become the first local company to sign a business relationship agreement with McDonald's Pakistan for the supply of beef products.

The company, in a notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), said the beef products would be supplied through its frozen food facility located in Lahore.

“It is our great pleasure to announce that ASC is the first-ever Pakistani company to enter into a business relationship agreement with McDonald's Pakistan for the supply of beef products,” it said in the PSX notice.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/amp/40197249

[Riaz Haq]

Cows and chillies – the CPEC plan to revamp agriculture and livestock
China will assist Pakistan in producing embryos of high-milk yielding cows and in setting up contract-farms growing high-yield chilis.



https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/09/21/cows-and-chillies-th...


What does CPEC have to do with agriculture?

The concept is very simple. In Pakistan, there are a few critical problems that hamper agriculture, livestock, and all manner of produce. The specifics are usually things like poor seed quality, a lack of modern farming techniques, low-yield, and a lack of skilled farm labour. The solution to all of these problems is singular — research.

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Currently there are two end-goals. The first is to improve the genetic variations of cows being used in Pakistan for dairy farming. To achieve this, Pakistan requires better embryos to be able to farm elite animals with high-yields and long lives. To this end, the Royal Group of China has established a laboratory in Lahore to develop buffalo embryos of elite animals. The company also plans to set up a buffalo dairy farm of 8,000 heads. The project is aimed at significantly improving buffalo breeds and milk yield both in Pakistan and China.

On the other front, the Sichuan Litong Ltd. and China Machinery and Engineering Corporation have started chilli contract-farming in Punjab and Sindh on 400 hectares. The company is providing local farmers technology and training to grow high-quality chilis. It has planned to expand this operation on 10,000 hectares and to also establish a chilli processing plant.

The chilli project is actually quite fascinating. Pakistan as a country has ideal conditions for growing chillies. As per the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (Economic Wing), chilli is grown on 47,349 hectares in Pakistan with a crop yield of about 2.68 tons per hectare (1.072 tons per acre) and an annual production of around 126,943 tons in FY 2018-19. Over the past couple of years, however, chillies have first seen a significant increase in yield and then a significant dip.

While chillies are a native product that thrive in the region, the reality is that demand (particularly international demand) varies because of the unreliability of the crops in Pakistan. To this end, the Chinese companies taking on the chilli project are hoping to use better farming techniques, the latest research, and better seeds to grow more chillies in a smaller area and then export them to China. To do this, perhaps what is a bigger deal is that they will process and dry these chillies before exporting them — making it one of the few crops that get post harvest treatment in Pakistan as well. If successful, this may open other avenues for export for Pakistan as well.

The potential really is massive. Earlier this year, near the end of May, six model farms under Pakistan-China Red Chilli Contract Farming Project achieved a bumper harvest in southern Punjab and northern Sindh, with an estimated yield of 700 tons of dried chillies. According to Dai Bao, leader of the agricultural project of China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) in Pakistan, crops in the six model farms with a total area of nearly 300 acres began bearing fruits in May. As part of the process, more than 200 local technicians were trained this planting season and nearly 1,000 jobs were created

A similar story stands on the livestock end of the equation as well. Other than trying to ensure high-quality embryos the China Animal Husbandry Industry Co., Ltd. is also planning a livestock vaccine production plant in Gwadar which would produce vaccines to prevent animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease.

[Riaz Haq]

Near Kunri, a southern Pakistani town known as Asia's chilli capital, 40-year old farmer Leman Raj rustles through dried plants looking for any of the bright red chillis in his largely destroyed crop which may have survived.

https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/pakistani-farmers-fight-a-losi...

"My crops suffered heavily from the heat, then the rains started, and the weather changed completely. Now, because of the heavy rains we have suffered heavy losses in our crops, and this is what has happened to the chillies," he said, holding up desiccated, rotten plants . "All the chillies have rotted away."

Devastating floods that wrecked havoc across Pakistan in August and September, on the back of several years of high temperatures, have left chilli farmers struggling to cope. In a country heavily dependent on agriculture, the more extreme climate conditions are hitting rural economies hard, farmers and experts say, underscoring the vulnerability of large swathes of South Asia's population to changing weather patterns.

Officials have already estimated damages from the floods at over $40 billion.

Pakistan, with 150,000 acres of chilli farms and producing 143 000 tonnes of chillies annually is ranked fourth in the world for chilli production. Agriculture forms the backbone of Pakistan's economy, which in a country that experts say is extremely vulnerable to climate change poses major risks.

Before the floods, the biggest problem was hotter temperatures, which were making it harder to successfully grow chilli, which needs more moderate conditions.

"When I was a child ... the heat was never so intense. We used to have a plentiful crop, now it has become so hot, and the rains are so scarce that our yields have dwindled," Leman Raj said.

Dr Attaullah Khan, the Director of the Arid Zone Research Centre, at Pakistan's Agricultural Research Council, told Reuters that even before the floods, the region had faced serious problems from heatwaves in the last three years, which was affecting the growth of chilli crops in the area.

Now the floods he said, posed a whole new set of challenges.

"Coming to climate change: how do we overcome that?” he said. "Planning has to be done on a very large scale. Four waterways that used to carry (excess) water to the ocean have to be revived. For that we will have to take some very hard decisions …. but we don't have any other choice."

Many farmers say they have already faced tough decisions.

As flooding inundated his farm a few months ago, Kunri farmer Faisal Gill decided to sacrifice his cotton crops to try to save chilli.

"We constructed dikes around cotton fields and installed pumps, and dug up tranches in the chill crop to accumulate water and pump it out into the cotton crop fields, as both crops are planted side by side," Gill said.

Destroying his cotton enabled him to save saved just 30% of his chilli crop, he said, but that was better than nothing.


In Kunri's bustling wholesale chilli market, Mirch Mandi, the effect is also being felt. Though mounds of bright red chilli dot the market, traders said there is a huge drop on previous years.

"Last year, at this time, there used to be around 8,000 to 10,000 bags of chillies in the market," said trader Raja Daim. "This year, now you can see that there are barely 2,000 bags here, and it is the first day of the week. By tomorrow, and the day after, it will become even less,” he said, adding an average day later in the week just 1,000 bags reached the market.