`Italy to Provide €1.5M to Develop Pakistani Olive Oil Sector - Olive Oil Times
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Italy to Provide €1.5M to Develop Pakistani Olive Oil Sector

By Paolo DeAndreis
Jun. 28, 2022 17:29 UTC

A new Italian-Pakistani joint devel­op­ment project for the olive indus­try has been announced by the Italian ambas­sador in Pakistan, Andreas Ferrarese.

The Olive Culture ini­tia­tive aims to pro­mote olive cul­ti­va­tion in Pakistan, with a spe­cific focus on devel­op­ing the sec­tor’s pro­duc­tion and sup­ply chains.

There is a need to reduce the cost of pro­duc­tion in the olive sup­ply value chain with the acqui­si­tion of tech­nol­ogy and to give oppor­tu­ni­ties to the local farm­ers.- Marco Marchetti, project coor­di­na­tor, Ciheam Bari International

According to Ferrarese, €1.5 mil­lion will be deployed over the next 26 months in areas iden­ti­fied by the Pakistani Oilseed Department in coop­er­a­tion with Ciheam Bari International, an agro­nomic research orga­ni­za­tion.

Ferrarese added that the project would also strengthen stake­holder rela­tion­ships and upgrade pro­cess­ing tech­niques.

See Also:Hundreds of Native Olive Trees Burned in Balochistan Wildfires

Ferrarese said the new ven­ture ​“rep­re­sents the con­tin­u­a­tion of all the work done by Italy in the past, with a holis­tic approach encom­pass­ing all stages and stake­hold­ers.”

Four decades ago, Italy offered tech­ni­cal sup­port to assess the fea­si­bil­ity of mod­ern cul­ti­va­tion in the coun­try.

Since 2012, the European coun­try pro­vided tech­ni­cal and finan­cial sup­port for the first of sev­eral ini­tia­tives in the olive sec­tor, includ­ing the ​“pro­mo­tion of olive cul­ti­va­tion for eco­nomic devel­op­ment and poverty alle­vi­a­tion.”

The Italian ambas­sador empha­sized how Pakistan could become a sig­nif­i­cant olive-pro­duc­ing coun­try in the future, with olive oil pro­duc­tion help­ing the gov­ern­ment lower the country’s trade deficit.

“We are happy to con­tinue with the aim of devel­op­ing a sus­tain­able, mod­ern and rich olive cul­ture,” Ferrarese said. ​“We look for­ward to the time when Pakistan would be among the lead­ing olive pro­duc­ing and export­ing coun­tries in the world.”

Marco Marchetti, the project coor­di­na­tor from Ciheam Bari International, said the ini­tia­tive would help Pakistan pro­duce more olive oil for a pop­u­la­tion that con­sumes 4.5 mil­lion tons of edi­ble oils annu­ally.

Marchetti told local media that pro­mot­ing olive oil cul­ture will include spread­ing aware­ness among farm­ers about olive oil val­ues while invest­ing in tech­nol­ogy.

“There is a need to reduce the cost of pro­duc­tion in the olive sup­ply value chain with the acqui­si­tion of tech­nol­ogy and to give oppor­tu­ni­ties to the local farm­ers to sell olive in the mar­ket at a good price,” he said.

Marchetti cited pre­vi­ous joint olive devel­op­ment projects, such as the Pakistan Italian Debt Swap Agreement, which led to the plant­ing of 2,000 hectares of new plan­ta­tions between 2012 and 2015. In 2016, another agree­ment helped estab­lish three olive oil mills.

Ciheam Bari International is also directly involved in the ongo­ing Italian-financed ​“olive cul­ture holis­tic and multi-pro­fes­sional mech­a­nism for a Pakistani olive oil value chain” project.

According to Marchetti, the new project will pro­mote the health ben­e­fits of extra vir­gin olive oil and sup­port the devel­op­ment of tech­ni­cal skills and qual­ity stan­dards for the oil cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and phy­tosan­i­tary labs in the coun­try.

The cur­rent olive cul­ture project comes as the Pakistani gov­ern­ment is also increas­ing its coop­er­a­tion with the International Olive Council (IOC).

The coun­try is one step away from for­mal acces­sion to the IOC, but part­ner­ships have already been dis­cussed to sup­port the local olive sec­tor.

Ciheam, an inter­gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion com­posed of 13 Mediterranean coun­tries, has been an IOC strate­gic part­ner since 2016. At the begin­ning of June, dur­ing the recent IOC’s Council of Members in Amman, Jordan, the two orga­ni­za­tions signed a renewed wide-rang­ing coop­er­a­tion agree­ment.

More articles on:  , ,

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles