FAISALABAD, June 27: Punjab Food Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal has stressed upon stakeholders and government functionaries to work for meeting the WTO challenges for survival in the global competitive market and economic prosperity. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a seminar on ‘Challenges to food industry in WTO scenario’ held at the University of Agriculture here on Monday, the minister underlined the need for making the food production sector relatively competitive and its operational policies, regulations and procedures more harmonized.

He said after the enforcement of sanitary and phytosanitary agreement under WTO, Pakistan was bound to adopt standards and trade-related intellectual property rights.

He said the post-trading system posed a great challenge to the food-related entrepreneurs to adopt their industrial operations according to the WTO standards. There was a need to motivate and create awareness among stakeholders through conferences, seminars and workshops, he added.

The minister said: “Our agriculture should focus on exports as relatively low-cost production will have a competitive advantage in the global market.”

He said the food industry could play a major role in the economic growth of Pakistan.

The minister said the country’s population was facing problems like poverty, malnutrition, adulteration, non-availability of adequate food, poor hygiene and sanitation, inadequate drinking water and ineffective enforcement of pure food law.

He said evidence indicated that Pakistan had an advantage over developed countries in the production of many agricultural products such as cotton, rice, fruits and flowers.

“However, the potential of a country to maintain or expand its world market share depends entirely on its ability to meet challenges of the world trading system, not only in terms of competitive prices but also their quality and safety standards.”

He said technical measures such as food quality, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements under WTO might impede future trade of agricultural products from Pakistan.

Earlier, university’s VC Dr. Bashir Ahmed said: “We should opt for utilization of agro-industrial wastes for high-quality production.”