KARACHI: Pakistan has offered to supply tropical fruits, vegetable and cereal crops to China as it signed more than two dozen agriculture-sector memorandums of understanding worth over $4 billion, its national food security ministry said on Saturday.
The MoUs were finalized at a business-to-business (B2B) investment conference held in Beijing on Sept. 4, coinciding with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.
The country’s food security minister, Rana Tanveer Hussain, held meetings with leading agri-industry companies on the sidelines of the conference, inviting Chinese investment in areas like mechanization, seed development, smart farming and precision agriculture to enhance productivity and strengthen Pakistan’s food security.
“Highlighting China’s $215 billion annual agricultural import market, Mr.Hussain said Pakistan can play a significant role in supplying tropical and temperate fruits, vegetables and cereal crops,” the ministry said in a statement.
“He stressed that Pakistan, as China’s closest neighbor and a ‘brotherly country,’ offers geographical proximity and competitive pricing advantages compared to imports from Brazil and other Western countries,” it added.
