Islamabad and Riyadh have agreed to increase Pakistan’s agricultural and food exports to Saudi Arabia to three billion dollars over the next two years. The understanding was reached during successful talks between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The Pakistani delegation was led by Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain and Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Engineer Abdulrahman A. Al-Fadley. The talks were held during the Saudi delegation’s visit to Islamabad from August 26 to 28, which came at the personal interest of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The Prime Minister also met the Saudi delegation and discussed potential areas of cooperation in agriculture and food security. According to a joint communiqu\u00e9 issued after the visit, rice, red meat, fruits and fruit concentrates, green fodder and water-efficient agricultural technologies have been identified as priority areas for enhanced cooperation, particularly with the Saudi private sector. The two sides noted that Pakistan supplied around 169,000 tonnes of rice, worth around 163 million dollars, to Saudi Arabia in 2025. The Saudi side expressed interest in further increasing rice imports from Pakistan in the coming years. Both sides also reviewed Pakistan’s annual supply of around 30,000 tonnes of red meat to Saudi Arabia, worth 167 million dollars. The two countries also agreed to encourage greater business-to-business linkages and matchmaking between their private sectors and promote mutual recognition of quality certifications to increase exports of fruits and fruit concentrates. Green fodder was identified as another promising area for expanding trade and establishing long-term supply partnerships. The two sides welcomed the successful completion of the first phase of a water-efficient irrigation programme in Bhakkar, Punjab, and expressed interest in the proposed second phase for small farmers. The Saudi delegation also encouraged Pakistan to join the International Dates Council, which was welcomed by the Pakistani side. Investment proposals presented by Pakistan’s private sector in livestock, agri-food processing and the rice value chain were also reviewed. During the visit, the Saudi delegation was briefed on the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia Agriculture and Food Strategic Plan and held meetings with the Special Investment Facilitation Council, Fauji Foundation and the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia Agri-Business Forum. It also visited the National Agricultural Research Centre. Pakistan has also welcomed an invitation to participate in the 43rd Saudi Agriculture Exhibition, scheduled to be held in Riyadh from 19th October to 22nd October this year. Both sides expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the visit and agreed to maintain close coordination to translate the understandings reached into practical cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad and Riyadh have agreed to increase Pakistan’s agricultural and food exports to Saudi Arabia to three billion dollars over the next two years. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33200,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}