A NUMBER of countries depend on olive production to sustain their economies and a major share of their revenue-generation comes from it. European countries, especially Spain and Italy, lead in this regard because the climate in these countries supports olive cultivation. According to data released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT), Italy had produced more than a million tonnes of olive oil by 2013. A number of developed countries depend on olive import from Italy which gives it a sort of monopoly in the international olive oil market.

Pakistan also enjoys similar climate flexibility along with a diverse geographical landscape that only a few countries have. The climate in Pakistan’s mountainous parts support olive cultivation, but this potential has remained untapped. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan’s olive import bill stood at $4,771 during the 2020-21 fiscal. This is like wasting foreign exchange reserves, low as they already are, and adding to the economic woes.

Lately, Pakistan has started realising the importance of olive oil production, but, unfortunately, such efforts have been confined to only a handful of locations. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, in collaboration with the federal government’s 10 Billion Tree Afforestation Project (10BTAP), discovered 70 million wild olive trees, out of which 40 million will be grafted, and new ones will be planted.

Sindh and Balochistan also have millions of wild olive trees, but these provinces for some strange reasons generally remain neglected in national projects.

One such area in Sindh is the Kirthar range which extends to about 300 kilometres. The Gorakh hill station alone is said to have more than 10 million wild olive trees, which, if grafted properly, can help generate thousands of employment opportunities in the province, help Pakistan export olive oil, support the dwindling foreign exchange reserves, and help mitigate environmental impacts.

The federal government should expand the 10BTAP initiative to include areas like Kirthar, and the Sindh government, on its part, should take a proactive approach and initiate its own projects to boost olive cultivation in the province.

Shahnawaz Khoso
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2021