Pakistani Governement has planned to enhance olive oil production
Pakistan’s olive ambition rests on a quiet asset most countries lack: vast stands of wild olive already growing in its hills. The plan is less to plant from scratch than to convert what is there — and to cut a huge edible-oil import bill.
Pakistan is often listed among the world’s promising new olive countries, and its strategy has an unusual starting point. The hills of Balochistan and the Pothohar plateau are already covered with wild olive — the same species as the cultivated tree, but bearing tiny, near-useless fruit. Rather than plant millions of saplings from nothing, much of Pakistan’s push has been to graft these existing wild trees over to fruiting varieties, turning a scrubby native tree into a productive orchard. It is a clever, low-cost route into olive growing.
The wild-olive head start
Grafting is the heart of it. A wild olive is hardy, deep-rooted and already adapted to the local ground and climate — everything a young planted tree spends years trying to become. Graft a productive variety onto that established rootstock and you skip much of the wait and the risk. Pakistan has paired this with new nurseries, imported milling equipment and experimental stations across the drier districts to work out which varieties and techniques suit the land. It is agriculture built on an asset the country already had.
Why olives, and why here
The strategic driver is money leaving the country. Pakistan imports a very large volume of edible oil each year at great cost, and a domestic olive-oil industry is seen as a way to trim that bill. The olive also fits the land: it is markedly drought-tolerant, needing far less water than apples, peaches or apricots and closer to almonds or pomegranates, which matters enormously in a region wrestling with water scarcity. A crop that earns hard currency and sips water is an easy one to champion.
Nothing wasted
One appeal of the olive in a developing rural economy is how little of it goes to waste. Beyond the oil and the table fruit, the milling by-products — the crushed stones and dried pulp — can serve as fuel, animal feed or fertiliser; prunings become fertiliser or firewood; and the dense, fine-grained wood is prized for handicrafts. For a region looking to build livelihoods as well as an oil supply, a tree where almost every part has a use is an attractive proposition. The catch, as always, is time: even grafted trees take years to come into full bearing.
What to take from it
- Pakistan’s strategy leans on existing wild olive, grafted over to fruiting varieties.
- Grafting onto established rootstock skips much of the wait and risk of new planting.
- The olive suits the land — it is strongly drought-tolerant — and cuts edible-oil imports.
- Almost every part of the tree is useful, but full production still takes years.
Pakistan’s olive industry: common questions
Does Pakistan grow olives?
Yes, and increasingly so — chiefly in Balochistan and the northern Pothohar plateau, where the climate and existing wild olive suit the crop.
What is the role of wild olive in Pakistan?
Central. The hills already hold vast stands of wild olive, and much of the strategy is to graft these over to fruiting varieties rather than plant from scratch.
Why is Pakistan promoting olives?
To cut a large edible-oil import bill and to use a drought-tolerant tree well suited to its arid regions.
How drought-tolerant is the olive?
Very — it needs far less water than apples, peaches or apricots, closer to almonds or pomegranates, which is valuable in water-scarce regions.
How soon can Pakistan produce its own olive oil?
It already does on a modest scale, but building real volume takes time: even grafted trees need years to reach full bearing.
Pakistan’s olive story is smarter than the usual plant-a-million-trees announcement, because it starts with an asset already in the ground: hillsides of wild olive, hardy and rooted, waiting to be grafted over to varieties that actually fruit. That shortcut sidesteps years of establishment risk. Add a tree that sips water in a thirsty land and helps trim a punishing oil-import bill, and the logic is obvious. The only thing that cannot be grafted away is patience — even a converted tree takes years to fill a mill.
Drawn from background on Pakistan’s olive-grafting programmes in Balochistan and the Pothohar plateau; figures described qualitatively.