ISLAMABAD: Value addition and marketing training must be imparted to farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for quality olive farming practices in Pakistan.
“Like olive famers in Italy and Spain, farmers in Pakistan must install small oil extraction machines in their farms,” said Dr Rifat Tahira, Principal Scientist, Plant Genetic Resources Program, Bioresources Conservation Institute of National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), while talking to WealthPK.
“Many products add value to the olive market i.e., preservation, flavoured pickling, jam, edible oil, production of pomace. Its unhandled or non-extracted form is called extra virgin. It becomes virgin when partial removal of gum or moisture is done without heating, addition of any preservative, vitamin or chemical. Further processing with the addition of any nutrient or any other thing makes it olive oil. Price of oil depends upon the processing method of oil extraction,” she said.
“There is no rocket science to extract olive oil. Its small oil extractor is same as cold press. Only farmers must be trained for olive oil extraction, seed treatment, mill installation, value addition and marketing,” Dr Riffat said.
Deputy National Project Director (NPD) of Oil Seed Program in Pakistan Dr Azmat Ali told WealthPK that about 40,000 hectares of area having more than 500,000 plants are under olive cultivation in Pakistan.
In the provinces of Punjab, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, olive cultivation is going on successfully, while in Sindh, it started at official level in 2022.
Italy funded Rs3.82 billion for promotion of olive farming on a scientific basis in Pakistan from 2012 to 2015. It was monitored by Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). In 2015, the federal government further funded this project with Rs2.4 billion with Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board (PODB) as an executing agency under the umbrella of the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).
This program was named “Promotion of Olive Tree Cultivation on Commercial Scale (POTCCS) in Pakistan”. Its first phase is completed, and the second phase, which is operational from 2022, is planned to be completed by 2024.
Dr Azmat said that oil keeping acidic value at 0.8% is considered as extra virgin, while more than 0.8% up to 2% acidic oil is virgin, and pomace is the residue utility used in bakeries as additive and for other commercial purpose.
Muhammad Ramzan Ansar, Agronomist and Deputy Project Director in Barani Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Chakwal, told WealthPK that orchids of olive aging two to 30 years exist in Chakwal Institute. In Potohar division, 1,500,000 olive plants have been cultivated. Research on olive cultivation in Pakistan was started in 1979. After a chain of experiments, 20 olive varieties out of imported 86 are found viable to grow in Pakistan.
Apart from BARI, a new dedicated department, Centre of Excellence for Olive Research and Training (CEFORT), was also established in 2019, and it will be in regular mode from 2023. In November 2021, Pakistan joined the International Olive Council as an observer member.
“Regular training workshops concerning olive farming and value addition are an important component of our agenda. Within a short period, pomace extraction will start in the institute with already working extractors of extra virgin, virgin and processed oil,” Ramzan Ansar said.
Olive farmer and owner of Berg olive farm Ahmad Khan Buzdar told WealthPK that initially he cultivated 500 olive plants in his farm in 2000, and now he has an area of 17 hectares cultivated with 15 different verities.
“Olive grown in Balochistan provides good percentage of oil extraction. The ratio of extracted oil from each 100kg of fruit from my farm was found 29.41%. It is the highest ratio found rarely,” Buzdar said.
For best farming practices, olive growers need to learn orchard management, packaging, marketing, manual oil extraction and other value additions.
In Koh-e-Suleman and many other areas, wild olives are in abundance which are used for fodder, burning or hut-making.
“I took 180kg samples collected from wild olive plants to the PODB. 15kg of oil was extracted, and the laboratory report proved 7.9% oil extraction ratio from them. The government must further promote olive cultivation by raising awareness among the growers about its true value,” he said.
