PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Monday inaugurated the province’s first Food Safety and Halal Food Authority.
Officials say the authority will monitor and improve the quality of food in the province.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the authority’s Director General, Riaz Mehsud, said the body, which commenced operations on March 1, will have its headquarters in Peshawar in addition to seven divisional headquarters across the province.
“It is being set up in Peshawar, Swat, Abbottabad, Mardan, D. I. Khan, Bannu, and Kohat for now, but will be extended to the entire province in due course,” he said.
Seven mobile testing labs have also been arranged to check food standards on the spot, while more will be arranged in the coming days, added Mehsud.
The KP Food Authority will lay down standards, procedures and guidelines for any food-related enforcements including labeling and food additives. The authority staff will monitor and regulate the manufacture, storage, and distribution of food across the province. The body will also regulate regional sales and imports.
The authority staff will also visit food outlets and hotels, giving their employees and owners health certificates after their medical tests.
“Besides health certificates, we will register all general stores and food outlets. Our mechanism for registration is of two kinds: One, the hotels’ management can register online, and secondly, our food and safety officers will visit food outlets to register them in rural areas where people either don’t have access to the Internet or they don’t have the know-how to register online,” said Mehsud.
The authority, set up under the KP Food Safety Authority Act of 2014, has hired volunteers to monitor food safety and quality, working alongside regular staff in the field.
Hashim Javed, a graduate in food science and technology from the University of Agriculture in Peshawar, told Arab News that the volunteers are now being trained by the authority.
“Previously, food inspectors were hired by the KP Food Department but those inspectors did not have any specialized education in food. Now the authority has hired volunteers, all of whom are from the relevant discipline. We have studied theory on food safety but now we are going to work practically in the field,” said Javed.
The Food Authority staff will first issue a notice to a hotel in a case of insanitary conditions or substandard food, and if that does not work fines will be slapped on such hotels and eateries, or they might even have their assets confiscated, according to officials.
KP Food Authority, operating under the province’s Health Department, is the second such regulatory body in the country after Punjab set up its Food Authority in 2011.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gets its first food safety authority
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gets its first food safety authority
Pakistan plans $80 million seafood zone at Karachi harbor to target Gulf markets
- Plan aims to move exports away from raw seafood toward higher-value processed products
- Project will be developed under public-private partnership or build-operate-transfer model
KARACHI: Pakistan plans to develop a seafood processing and export zone at Karachi’s Korangi Fisheries Harbor that could cost up to $80 million to boost value-added exports and position the country as a supplier to the Gulf and other regional markets, Maritime Affairs Minister Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry said on Saturday.
The proposed 100-acre project aims to shift Pakistan away from exporting raw seafood by building modern processing, cold-chain and packaging infrastructure linked to international buyers, as Islamabad looks to expand its blue economy and deepen maritime trade ties with the region.
In a statement, Chaudhry said the zone would be developed, financed and operated under a public-private partnership or build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, with private investors running the facilities and the Qur’angi Fisheries Harbor Authority retaining regulatory oversight.
“The estimated project cost ranges between $60 million and $80 million, based on regional benchmarks from countries such as Vietnam, China and Ecuador, which have developed similar seafood parks,” Chaudhry said.
He said the facility would include 20 to 25 medium- to large-scale seafood processing units for fish, shrimp and cephalopods, alongside large-scale cold storage, blast freezing, packaging facilities, logistics and export terminals, and a wastewater treatment plant to ensure environmentally compliant operations.
“Packaging and labeling units would operate under international food safety and quality standards, including HACCP and ISO certifications, offering vacuum packing, modified atmosphere packaging and retail-ready solutions,” he said, referring to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a preventive food safety system.
ISO certification verifies that a company’s management systems meet international standards.
The minister said the zone would be used exclusively for commercial seafood processing, packaging, cold storage and export-oriented activities, with multi-temperature storage ranging from minus 18 to minus 40 degrees Celsius and ice plants capable of producing 50 to 100 tons daily.
Chaudhry said the preferred investment structure is a BOT concession under which the private partner would finance, develop and operate the project for an expected 20-year tenure, with ownership reverting to the harbor authority at the end of the concession period.
He added that the estimated internal rate of return was projected between 13 percent and 17 percent, with revenue generated through lease rentals, processing fees, logistics services and export-linked earnings.
“The project will position Pakistan as a key maritime trade and seafood export hub serving Gulf, East African and Asian markets,” Chaudhry said.
