ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants its wheat fields and dairy farms to do what textiles alone can no longer manage carry the country toward a $100 billion export target by 2035. Friday's session drew roughly 100 people from across the agriculture sector, and the message from the government side was blunt; quit shipping raw crops, start building brands.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal chaired the session the third in the Strategic Dialogue Series, this one titled "Unlocking Pakistan's High-Value Export Potential." His message left little room for interpretation. Agriculture generates nearly a quarter of the country's GDP and employs 37 percent of its workforce, yet exports from the sector remain nowhere close to matching that weight. He wants that fixed through processing, certification, traceability and branding not more raw rice and unprocessed meat sitting on ships.

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Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Industry Rana Ahsan backed him up with numbers. Agricultural goods make up nearly 22 percent of Pakistan's exports, he said, but they stay trapped in raw-commodity form, leaving farmers and exporters exposed every time global prices swing. He linked the $100 billion ambition directly to an interim $60 billion target and said neither happens without serious value addition.

Pakistan Agriculture Exports Push

The government isn't just talking. Rana Ahsan laid out concrete moves: a review of the Export Policy Order through the Cabinet Committee on Regulatory Reforms, a doubling of the EXIM Bank's export finance pool from Rs1 trillion to Rs2 trillion by 2028, and a new SME financing window built with the Finance Ministry and State Bank. Customs and regulatory duties will also wind down gradually under the second year of the National Tariff Policy. A National Compliance Authority should start operating within three months.

The gap shows up clearly in the numbers. Food exports totalled $5.02 billion in FY2026, against a food import bill of $9.15 billion largely because rice and sugar shipments fell, even as meat, fish and fruit did better. July gave a hint of recovery: food exports climbed 2.5 percent, rice jumped 19 percent, and meat rose 16 percent.

Halal Meat Opportunity

Halal meat stood out as the session's biggest opportunity officials are aiming for $700 million in exports from the category by 2028. Participants pressed for a national cattle and goat farming programme focused on disease control and better breeds, and they demanded the government scrap the sales tax differential that currently makes informal meat trade cheaper than the branded, packaged kind.

Rice drew sharper criticism. Exporters and growers accused poor-quality shipments of triggering market closures abroad and called for regulatory action against exporters responsible. Others pushed for organic certification standards backed by accredited labs, affordable group certification for smallholders, and stronger protection for the electronic warehouse receipt system ahead of the wheat cycle.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research pointed to existing tools a livestock traceability programme worth Rs7.35 billion, an Animal Health Bill, a breeding policy but admitted these need real funding and provincial buy-in to matter.