Exports raise food security fears

According to The Express Tribune, Islamabad and Riyadh intend to raise farm and food shipments bound for Saudi Arabia to $3 billion in two years. The focus falls on rice, meat, orchard fruit, feed concentrates, fresh fodder and farm technology that uses less water. Each year, Saudi Arabia buys roughly 169,000 tonnes of Pakistani rice and close to 30,000 tonnes of red meat, and it plans to double meat purchases quickly.

Pakistan's total agro-food exports have passed $8 billion, with sesame sales to China topping $400 million across recent cycles. Shipments of animal fodder to the UAE alone are worth more than $33 million, while Oman, Kuwait and Central Asian markets also draw on Pakistani produce and meat. Multinational firms and large domestic retail chains are already funding corporate farming and guaranteeing purchases of entire harvests.

Growers, however, contend with dear inputs, unstable fertiliser and diesel costs, and scarce bank credit, while floods and shifting temperatures threaten harvests. The FPCCI regional food committee convener, Shahid Imran, called a proposed Pakistan-Saudi Agri Investment Fund a milestone for ties between the two countries. A stakeholder questioned who would ensure rising red meat, rice and fodder exports do not leave shortages within the country.