Pakistan's olive cultivation drive expands to 60 districts under PSDP project

Pakistan has widened its olive cultivation drive to 60 districts under the PSDP Olive Project, which now involves 12,000 farmers. The effort spans growing, processing, quality control and value addition, forming a chain that runs from farm to table.

Official documents seen by Wealth Pakistan, and reported by APP, show that more than 7.5 million olive trees now cover about 60,400 acres across federal, provincial and international schemes. Of these, 5 million trees, or 66 per cent, were planted under the PSDP project alone. Another 6,594 acres have received water-saving irrigation, and the documents put Pakistan's potential olive area above 4 million hectares.

Domestic propagation of saplings since 2022 has reduced reliance on Mediterranean imports and helped conserve foreign exchange. Training has reached 17,986 stakeholders through 276 programmes, and over 100 entrepreneurs now sell olive oil and items such as pickles, jams and soaps. The national olive policy and action plan has been formulated, received cabinet approval and was launched by the Prime Minister. Economic modelling for the 33,000-acre project estimates an annual contribution of Rs7.6 billion, ten years after completion.