`As Pakistan Olive Industry Matures, Producers See China as The Next Growth Engine - Olive Oil Times
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As Pakistan Olive Industry Matures, Producers See China as The Next Growth Engine

By Wasim Shahzad
Mar. 5, 2026 17:22 UTC
Summary Summary

Pakistan’s olive oil sec­tor is grow­ing with expanded acreage, new brands, and inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion, sig­nal­ing a shift towards a more struc­tured indus­try. Producers are focus­ing on qual­ity improve­ments, seek­ing to scale up pro­duc­tion through poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tion with China for tech­nol­ogy trans­fer and invest­ment in pro­cess­ing and logis­tics. The sec­tor also presents oppor­tu­ni­ties for rural devel­op­ment and job cre­ation, par­tic­u­larly in Balochistan, but long-term suc­cess will hinge on main­tain­ing qual­ity, meet­ing inter­na­tional stan­dards, and address­ing struc­tural chal­lenges.

Pakistan’s long-stand­ing polit­i­cal and eco­nomic part­ner­ship with China has expanded from infra­struc­ture and energy into trade and tech­nol­ogy. Now, as Islamabad looks to deepen coop­er­a­tion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, offi­cials and pro­duc­ers say the Pakistan olive oil sec­tor could be a high-impact next step.

Once framed as a state-led effort to cut the country’s depen­dence on imported edi­ble oils, Pakistan’s olive push is evolv­ing into a more struc­tured indus­try with mea­sur­able out­put, new brands and early signs of inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion. Expanded acreage, farmer train­ing and gov­ern­ment sup­port pro­grams have helped estab­lish the foun­da­tions of a domes­tic value chain, from grove devel­op­ment to milling and pack­ag­ing.

“Olive sec­tor is emerg­ing in Pakistan. Fifty-one olive extrac­tion units have been estab­lished in the coun­try,” said Muhammad Tariq, project direc­tor of PakOlive. He added that recent data shows dozens of tons of fruit processed for value addi­tion and a grow­ing num­ber of ​“olive entre­pre­neurs” enter­ing the mar­ket.

Tariq said cul­ti­va­tion had reached about 55,000 acres through 2025 and was expected to rise to 60,000 acres in 2026. He also pointed to an esti­mated annual olive oil out­put of around 150 tons, argu­ing that early pro­duc­tion gains are coin­cid­ing with lower reliance on imports and the start of small export ship­ments.

Industry par­tic­i­pants say those fig­ures mat­ter less as head­line totals than as evi­dence that an ecosys­tem is tak­ing shape. Alongside orchards and extrac­tion units, pri­vate oper­a­tors are build­ing brands and retail chan­nels, sig­nal­ing that olives are no longer viewed only as a sub­si­dized crop but increas­ingly as a com­mer­cial oppor­tu­nity tied to agri­cul­ture, pro­cess­ing and pre­mium food mar­kets.

Loralai Olives is one of the brands often cited as an exam­ple of the sector’s shift. Shaukat Rasool, the company’s chief exec­u­tive and co-founder, said con­sumer inter­est has accel­er­ated as Pakistani oils begin to earn out­side val­i­da­tion.

“In last one year, we at LO – Loralai Olives have wit­nessed a remark­able evo­lu­tion in Pakistan’s olive oil indus­try, par­tic­u­larly in qual­ity aware­ness and inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion,” Rasool said. ​“As LO received inter­na­tional award and gained global vis­i­bil­ity, con­sumer curios­ity has increased sig­nif­i­cantly.”

Rasool said the com­pany is pri­or­i­tiz­ing mono­va­ri­etal oils, but added that many con­sumers remain unfa­mil­iar with cat­e­gories and styles. ​“This ris­ing demand for deeper knowl­edge has encour­aged pro­duc­ers includ­ing us to become far more qual­ity-con­scious, trans­par­ent, and research-dri­ven in our prac­tices,” he said.

Producers describe a famil­iar pat­tern: when a local prod­uct earns inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion, domes­tic curios­ity rises quickly, and com­pa­nies respond by tight­en­ing har­vest­ing, milling and stor­age prac­tices. In Pakistan, they say that the dynamic has been rein­forced by insti­tu­tional steps aimed at build­ing a qual­ity infra­struc­ture.

Rasool said three qual­ity test­ing lab­o­ra­to­ries have been estab­lished with inter­na­tional part­ners, includ­ing the International Olive Council and Italian stake­hold­ers. ​“These facil­i­ties are strength­en­ing cred­i­bil­ity, trace­abil­ity, and stan­dards in the sec­tor,” he said.

He added that more pro­duc­ers are now pur­su­ing for­mal cer­ti­fi­ca­tions than in prior years. ​“This sig­nals that Pakistan’s olive indus­try is steadily shift­ing from vol­ume-dri­ven pro­duc­tion to a qual­ity-led, glob­ally com­pet­i­tive model,” Rasool said.

Even so, pro­duc­ers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers say qual­ity improve­ments alone will not sus­tain growth. The next chal­lenge is scale — and that is where coop­er­a­tion with China could play a deci­sive role through tech­nol­ogy trans­fer, invest­ment in pro­cess­ing and sup­port for pack­ag­ing and cold-chain logis­tics.

Tariq framed poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tion as a tech­nol­ogy-led upgrade rather than a sim­ple export play. ​“Collaboration with PR China in con­text of Olive indus­try growth will be in the field of tech­nol­ogy exchange for olive nutraceu­ti­cal, value addi­tion pro­duc­tion, and machin­ery,” he said, adding that a larger con­sumer mar­ket could cre­ate an open­ing for cer­ti­fied Pakistani oils.

He said early busi­ness-to-busi­ness dis­cus­sions took place around a Pakistan-China agri­cul­ture invest­ment con­fer­ence held in Islamabad on January 19, 2026, while not­ing that for­mal mem­o­randa of under­stand­ing and pol­icy frame­works remain a pos­si­bil­ity for the future.

For pro­duc­ers, the argu­ment is that Pakistan could appeal to Chinese buy­ers by main­tain­ing pre­mium qual­ity while build­ing reli­able vol­umes. China is already a sig­nif­i­cant importer of olive oil, and indus­try par­tic­i­pants expect demand to rise as con­sumers become more health-con­scious and the pre­mium food seg­ment expands.

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“Pakistan, with its emerg­ing high-qual­ity olive sec­tor, is well-posi­tioned to become a reli­able alter­na­tive sup­ply source rather than China rely­ing solely on tra­di­tional Mediterranean pro­duc­ers,” Rasool said. He added that shorter sup­ply chains and tighter trace­abil­ity could help Pakistani oils deliver fresher prod­uct and clearer prove­nance for importers and retail­ers.

At the same time, he said mar­ket access alone will not solve struc­tural con­straints that still limit the industry’s abil­ity to com­pete at scale. ​“Pakistan’s olive oil exporters face sev­eral struc­tural chal­lenges in access­ing global mar­kets, includ­ing lim­ited pro­duc­tion scale, high cer­ti­fi­ca­tion costs, lack of advanced pack­ag­ing facil­i­ties, and com­plex logis­tics for cold stor­age and ship­ping,” Rasool said.

He said estab­lished Mediterranean sup­pli­ers still ben­e­fit from mature trade net­works, brand recog­ni­tion and export infra­struc­ture, advan­tages that Pakistan will need time and cap­i­tal to match. In that con­text, Rasool pre­sented Chinese coop­er­a­tion as an accel­er­a­tor that could com­press years of incre­men­tal devel­op­ment into a shorter cycle.

“China’s strong global trade net­work, invest­ment capac­ity, and logis­tics exper­tise can help Pakistani pro­duc­ers scale faster, upgrade cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and qual­ity sys­tems, and improve pack­ag­ing and sup­ply chains,” he said. He added that part­ner­ships could even­tu­ally open export cor­ri­dors beyond China, strength­en­ing cred­i­bil­ity and com­pet­i­tive­ness for Pakistani brands.

Officials also point to poten­tial gains in rural devel­op­ment, par­tic­u­larly in Balochistan, where much of the cul­ti­va­tion is con­cen­trated. Rasool said olive farm­ing and pro­cess­ing are cre­at­ing year-round jobs in plant­ing, main­te­nance, har­vest­ing, milling, stor­age and logis­tics, while turn­ing under­uti­lized land into pro­duc­tive groves.

“Beyond jobs, it is build­ing a sus­tain­able, cli­mate-resilient rural econ­omy that brings sta­ble incomes, skills devel­op­ment, and long-term pros­per­ity to local com­mu­ni­ties,” Rasool said, adding that the province is becom­ing the core of Pakistan’s emerg­ing olive indus­try.

Tariq said coop­er­a­tion could also expand human resource devel­op­ment through train­ing and tech­ni­cal sup­port, and help future exports by strength­en­ing lab­o­ra­tory capac­ity and align­ment with inter­na­tional stan­dards. He added that improved post-har­vest han­dling, mar­ket­ing and brand­ing would be essen­tial if pro­duc­ers want to trans­late domes­tic expan­sion into durable export growth.

Whether Pakistan can con­vert momen­tum into a last­ing export indus­try, par­tic­i­pants said, will depend on pol­icy con­sis­tency, tax and invest­ment reforms and the abil­ity to match domes­tic pro­duc­tion to inter­na­tional mar­ket require­ments. ​“Pakistan olive sec­tor is one promis­ing sec­tor where invest­ment in any kind would never go in vein,” Tariq said, point­ing to oppor­tu­ni­ties across orchards, milling, machin­ery, value-added prod­ucts and ser­vices.

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