ISLAMABAD: Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TDAP), Agro Food Division has been geared up by Chief Executive SM Muneer and Secretary Rabiya Javeri Agha in order to give greater focus on the export of Agro-Food sector including fruits, rice, meat and seafood products.
“These products are being promoted by the Agro Food Division by arranging participation of exporters in the world exhibitions and sending them abroad and inviting trade delegations. TDAP this year had sent rice to China and Chinese delegation also visited Pakistan in the last month for promotion of rice export from Pakistan,” says a statement issued by the organization.
TDAP statement informed that two special delegations visited Pakistan last month, one from Thailand for rice import and other from Malaysia with interest procurement of a number of items.
Pakistan being an agricultural country constitutes 22 per cent of GDP and 44 per cent employees of the labour associated with agriculture. Pakistan has a rich and vast natural resource base, covering various ecological and climatic zones. Hence, the country has great potential for producing all types of food commodities.
Agriculture has an important direct and indirect role in generating economic growth. It is considered in the light of experts’ opinion that Pakistan has a huge untapped potential for grabbing a significant share of the world agro-food exports.
The Agro Food Division at TDAP is focused on helping to stimulate the export of agro-food products from Pakistan in order to achieve this potential. Participation in nearly 10 international exhibitions annually is undertaken by the Agro-Food Division. Some significant exhibitions attended by our exporters include Gulf Food, World Food Moscow, Sial Food Fair, Anuga Food Fair. Some local exhibitions are also organized by the Division to showcase potential of our Agro Food Products.
The Division organizes exporters’ delegations to potential importer countries of Pakistan agro-food products. In recent years, some of the countries visited by such delegations include Maldives, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Oman.
Similarly delegations of buyers are invited to visit Pakistan in order to see the potential and range of Pakistani Agro Food products. In the last year, delegations from South Africa and Yemen visited Pakistan. There is a dire need of improving the quality of the country’s agro-food products by transfer of technology, improving the hygienic conditions at production and packaging stage, as well as value addition.
The need is being met by various projects undertaken by the Agro Food Division, like initiating the process of setting up of Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) plants and calling inspection teams from potential market for the slaughterhouse. Beside these major activities, the Division is continually engaged in preparing commodity, country reports pertaining to the Agro food sector, as well as organizing informational and training seminars and workshops for current and potential entrepreneurs in this sector.
Such activities are of course undertaken with full consultation and sometimes in collaboration with various stakeholders of the Agro Food Sector.
