Islamabad, Aug 13: Over $1.2 billion worth of transactions were completed at the Karachi Expo Center during the second International Food and Agriculture Exhibition.
Over 800 customers from 75 countries attended the three-day FoodAg event, and 330 exporters showcased about 500 high-quality products. Buyers, global corporations, and international chain stores attended the show. More than 150 purchasers from China made up the largest participating country.
In addition to the signing of over 36 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) primarily pertaining to rice, processed food, seafood, kinnow, potatoes, lentils, chickpeas, mangoes, confectionery, meat, food and beverages, spices, cereals, and oil seeds by China, Malaysia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Gambia, and France, 7,000 business-to-business meetings resulted in deals worth $1.2 billion being finalized.
According to Zubair Motiwalla, Chief Executive of Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), the projected $1.2 billion in export orders will supplement the export goal that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set forth in his inaugural speech at the FoodAg event.
In addition, he stated that FoodAg Manufacturing, which is scheduled to take place in December in Lahore, will help with value addition and mechanized farming. He also added that the country’s next green revolution will be sparked by the agriculture sector’s recent growth and development.
A press release from the Ministry of Commerce stated that Chinese and Pakistani seafood enterprises had inked export contracts worth $35 million. Furthermore, a number of corporations, including HVA (dairy investment), declared their investment interests and memoranda of understanding (MoUs). METAS (Qatar), Huiyuan Beverages and Food Group (China), and Bolynta (potato seeds from the Netherlands).
In order to finalize the export orders, delegations from Egypt, Tajikistan, and Malaysia visited Tata Foods, the Malaysian departments of BERNAS, DG MAQIS, and Department of Veterinary Sciences, as well as the Sindh office of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and Fish Harbour.
Delegates from Jordan and Egypt visited Organic Meat; similarly, representatives from Argentina, Peru, and Uruguay visited KK Rice Mill; while representatives from Japan and Malaysia visited Rehmate Shereen. The TDAP further enhanced the flavor of the event by organizing a Global Cuisine exhibition, in which chefs from all over the world created outstanding dishes using Pakistani ingredients.
