Pakistan’s olive oil industry is calling for enforceable standards, certification and testing, saying weak regulation is holding back investment and exports. Growers say the sector can reduce the edible oil import bill, but needs policy support to compete abroad.
LAHORE: Pakistan’s emerging olive oil industry is pushing for a national regulatory framework, with growers and processors warning that export prospects and long-term investment could stall without enforceable quality standards, testing systems and certification.
Producers say the next phase of growth depends less on planting more trees and more on building market credibility in a sector where adulteration concerns, weak monitoring and limited consumer awareness make it harder for genuine brands to distinguish premium extra virgin olive oil from lower-grade or blended products.
Dr Qurat-ul-Ain Irfan, founder of Meshak Farms in Mardan, said, “There is no proper implementation framework. Anyone can market any product as olive oil. Labels may be approved, but there is little monitoring of what is actually inside the bottle.” She added that “there should be standardisation and consumers should know whether they are buying premium extra virgin olive oil, blended oil or another edible oil altogether,” arguing that without standards, serious producers are judged alongside everyone else.
Pakistan spends about $5-6 billion each year on imports of palm oil, soybean oil and other edible oils, making the segment one of the largest burdens on the import bill. Successive governments have promoted olive cultivation as an alternative, particularly because olive trees can grow on marginal land and offer higher value than many conventional crops.
Over the past decade, federal and provincial programmes have encouraged commercial olive farming in Potohar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Official estimates show millions of olive trees have been planted under public-sector initiatives, while Pakistan’s olive-growing belt is estimated at nearly 10 million acres of suitable land.
The latest effort is being backed through the OliveCulture Scale-Up Project for 2024-2027, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by CIHEAM Bari to support cultivation, processing and marketing across the olive value chain.
Even so, investors in the sector say technical support alone will not be enough. Irfan said olive farming requires patient capital, with commercial plantations taking several years to produce meaningful yields and more than a decade to reach optimum output. “People invest today but may have to wait 10 to 15 years before they start receiving substantial returns,” she said, adding that the sector deserves policy support because it can save foreign exchange and earn exports.
Meshak Farms, developed on virgin land in Mardan, began with imported Arbequina saplings from Italy and Catalonia and uses drip irrigation along with modern orchard management. Irfan said the farm has adopted international practices with support from CIHEAM Bari, including pruning, harvesting methods and quality control aimed at producing premium extra virgin olive oil.
She said the same focus on traceability, laboratory testing and quality assurance used in her pharmaceutical business, which exports to the United Kingdom and the European Union, also shapes the farm’s olive operations. Representatives of an Italian firm, she said, indicated they would consider sourcing Pakistani olive oil if production facilities secure internationally recognised certifications such as ISO 14000 and consistently meet quality requirements.
Industry participants say Pakistan may have an opening as climate change, ageing orchards and falling productivity in parts of the Mediterranean push global buyers to diversify supply. But they argue that export ambitions will remain difficult to realise unless the government introduces mandatory grading, stronger testing laboratories, traceability systems, certification procedures and awareness campaigns on authentic locally produced extra virgin olive oil.
Irfan also called for broader policy support to help lower domestic olive oil prices, saying the sector is taxed like others, including a 25% sales tax. “Currently the government is helping growers in this field, but the scope should now be expanded to where prices of olive oil in Pakistan should start reducing,” she said.