ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is rapidly expanding olive cultivation as it looks to cut a $4 billion annual edible oil import bill and build a high-value export industry, with the number of olive trees rising from about half a million in 2016 to nearly seven million today.

The push is focused on regions such as Potohar, northwestern Pakistan and parts of Balochistan, where officials say climate and soil conditions are well suited to olives.

Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Muhammad Tariq, Project Director for the Promotion of Olive Cultivation on a Commercial Scale, said the expansion was already beginning to reduce Pakistan’s reliance on imported olive oil.

“Due to our interventions and with government support over the past four to five years, our olive oil imports have decreased by about half, dropping from 400,000 tons to approximately 200,000 tons,” he said, noting that exports are simultaneously on a steady upward trajectory.

In financial terms, he continued, national olive oil import expenditures fell from $14 million to roughly $9 million in fiscal year 2024–2025.

“Looking at the current pattern, I think over the next three to four years our olive oil imports will be substituted by local production,” he added.

Olive cultivation currently covers about 60,000 acres, Tariq said, while the government plans to add another 15,000 acres over the next three years.

The drive gained fresh momentum last month when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched the National Olive Value Chain Policy, aimed at developing the sector from cultivation and processing to quality control, branding and exports.

At the launch, Sharif said Pakistan spends around $4 billion annually on crude edible oil imports and argued that even cutting that bill by a fraction through local production would bring major savings.

He said saving $400 million in a single year would be a “monumental service” to the country, while the longer-term goal was complete self-sufficiency.

To build technical expertise, Sharif also announced plans to send 100 young agricultural graduates to Italy for advanced training in olive cultivation, processing, quality control and marketing.

GLOBAL OLIVE OIL MARKET

Pakistan’s olive program dates back more than two decades, but commercial cultivation has accelerated sharply in recent years.

Dr. Faiyaz Alam, General Secretary of the Olive Council, Sindh, said wild olive trees had existed for centuries in hilly parts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and the Gorakh Hill area of Sindh.

Efforts to commercially exploit indigenous varieties through grafting began around 2000 on a limited scale. The first olive extraction machine was installed at Tarnab Farm in Peshawar, while commercial production gained momentum in subsequent years.

“Public awareness grew significantly after videos highlighting Pakistan’s wild olive resources emerged in 2020,” he said. “Government plantation programs subsequently accelerated the spread of commercial olive cultivation.”

Industry leaders say the opportunity extends beyond import substitution to the global olive oil market.

“We have only seven million trees at the moment ... We can plant 100 million trees and join the billion-dollar club of the global economy,” Shaukat Rasool, founder and CEO of Loralai Olives, said.

Rasool, whose company has received four international recognitions over the past two years, including awards in New York, Dubai, Berlin and London, said Pakistan was producing extra virgin olive oil with competitive quality characteristics, including high polyphenol content and low acidity.

He estimates the global olive oil market at around $22 billion and says Pakistan could capture a much larger share if cultivation expands substantially.

“I think there is a huge potential for Pakistan,” he said. “We have four million hectares of land available and the good thing is that olive is not in competition with other crops. So, we can grow as much olives as we can.”