Food safety concerns hamper exports

Experts to discuss food security, agri-investment amid climate change The Agri-Connections Conference and Expo will highlight that food security is no longer a national and regional priority alone but it is the problem for every Pakistani household as farmers are dealing with climate perils at a frequency not seen before. This was stated by Kazim Saeed, CEO Pakistan Agricultural Coalition, while talking to the media on Tuesday. "The Agri-Connections Conference and Expo will be held at Lahore Expo Center from October 1-2 and its theme is 'food security and agri-investment in the era of climate change'," said Kazim. He added that Pakistan's exports were a fraction of what they could be partly because of food safety concerns as "we will hear from the FAO at this conference while the IFC will brief on how the transition from a government-administered to a deregulated wheat sector needs the private sector to be engaged". The CEO stated that the conference would put a spotlight on the livestock sector, which launched a few IPOs in recent years, and would present the ecosystem developing to support the rise in shrimp farming. Kazim further said that the companies exporting olive oil and chilled meat with international partnerships would give presentations at the conference while the SECP would co-host an agri-investors' roundtable with the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition at the event. "We work closely with farmers, policymakers, regulators and Pakistan's development partners. Our efforts stretch from the largest business groups and global reinsurers taking interest in Pakistan to the agri-start-ups that seek investor capital to serve farmers," said Kazim. He pointed out that the federal government was developing an ecosystem for farmers' access to finance, which included credit for purchasing quality inputs, collateral-based lending to farmers, financing for agribusiness and crop insurance. He said that the State Bank was working with the Zarkheze framework for farm credit and the SECP for crop insurance while the government of Punjab was massively expanding credit to small farmers, tweaking its wheat deregulation framework and making strides in farm mechanisation. "The government of Sindh is developing a legal framework for farmers to congregate for greater market power. These initiatives cannot succeed without the engagement of the many layers of Pakistan's private businesses."