Staff Reporter Islamabad
Federal Minister, Syed Fakhar Imam chaired a meeting with delegation of Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations. Ms. Rubina Wahaj, Senior Land and Water Officer and Mr. Faisal, Program Officer (FAO) attended the meeting.
Minister apprised the participants about the current edible oil situation in the country and showed his concern that we are importing more than 91% of our edible oil requirements from abroad spending huge amount of foreign exchange which is more than US$ 3 billion.
He informed that we were meeting 30% of our requirements of edible oil from local production few years back but now due to decrease in area of Cotton, which used to contribute 70% in local production of edible oil, our imports have further increased.
He requested FAO for its assistance to tor to identify issues which were hindering local production of oilseed crops and to suggest concrete solutions.
Meeting was also attended by Syed Anwar-ul-Hasan Bukhari, Additional Secretary (P&T), Mr. Rashid Mahmood, Additional Secretary (D/IC) and senior officers of M/o NFS&R&PODB.
Honorable Minister also expressed his concerns on negligible area under soybean in the country which is our major oilseed imports.
Delegates from FAO showed their willingness to support and extend assistance for in-depth review of Oilseed Sector.
It was decided that a follow up meeting will be held on 29.07.2021 to discuss the modalities of proposed study
