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ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (APP):Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain on Thursday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment for building long-term partnerships with Poland in the field of agriculture and food security.
He expressed confidence that enhanced bilateral cooperation would open new avenues for trade, technology transfer, and sustainable agricultural development.
The minster held a high-level meeting with the Ambassador of Poland, which focused on strengthening bilateral agricultural cooperation, enhancing Pakistan’s agricultural exports to Poland, and addressing technical barriers related to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements.
The minister highlighted Poland’s role as a major agricultural producer in Europe, ranking second globally in rye exports and third in apple exports, with significant production of wheat, barley, oats, sugar beet, tobacco, fruits, and potatoes.
He emphasized that Pakistan and Poland could greatly benefit from mutual collaboration in cereals, fruits, livestock, and food processing sectors.
Discussing SPS challenges, Hussain underlined that Pakistan’s exporters face difficulties in accessing the Polish market due to stringent EU standards regarding transportation, storage, aflatoxins, and packaging.
He urged Poland’s support in harmonizing SPS measures between Pakistan’s Department of Plant Protection (DPP) and Poland’s National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO).
He further stressed the need for cooperation in capacity development, food safety, and certification systems to facilitate smooth trade.
The minister noted that Pakistan currently exports rice, mango, sesame seeds, dates, and alfalfa seed to Poland, albeit in small volumes compared to its production surplus. Imports from Poland mainly include potato starch and tortilla wraps.
He identified citrus, rice, mango, and animal products as strong potential areas for expanding exports and urged Poland to allow imports of Pakistani citrus, which is already being exported to more than 40 countries, including the UK, Norway, and Russia.
Both sides also discussed expanding cooperation in the livestock sector and the minister proposed establishing a Joint Working Group on Livestock to strengthen collaboration in animal health, veterinary sciences, meat trade, and dairy production.
He highlighted Pakistan’s existing export of animal casings to Poland and expressed interest in expanding cooperation to include cooked meat, poultry, and processed food.
The meeting further explored areas of agricultural cooperation such as exchange of elite crop genetic resources, joint research on post-harvest management and value addition, renewable energy use in agriculture, water conservation, biotechnology for land reclamation, and expertise-sharing in organic farming and certification.