ISLAMABAD: Pakistan wants to nearly triple its agricultural exports to Saudi Arabia inside two years, and Riyadh just gave the plan its blessing. Both governments came to an agreement to export goods worth $3 billion after three days of discussions in Islamabad. This was one of the most tangible goals set by either side on paper in the context of this relationship.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with a Saudi delegation led by Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Engineer Abdulrahman A. Al-Fadley. A signal Islamabad is treating as more than a routine ministerial exchange. The Ministry of National Food Security and Research confirmed the details in a statement issued Sunday.
Pakistan's Minister for National Food Security and Research, Rana Tanveer Hussain, ran the Pakistani side of the talks. He didn't come alone. Executives from the rice, red meat, processed food, fruit concentrate and green fodder industries traveled with him the kind of delegation mix that suggests Islamabad wants exporters closing deals, not just diplomats exchanging pleasantries.
Pakistan Saudi Food Exports Target $3 Billion
The math behind the target tells its own story. Pakistan sold Saudi Arabia about 169,000 tonnes of rice last year, pulling in roughly $163 million. Red meat exports ran close behind at 30,000 tonnes, worth around $167 million. Saudi officials confirmed they want to double red meat purchases and expand rice trade well past current volumes numbers that, if they hold, would do most of the heavy lifting toward that $3 billion figure on their own.
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Fruit and fruit concentrates rounded out the priority list, alongside green fodder, which Saudi officials singled out as ready for long-term supply contracts rather than one-off shipments. Water-efficient farming technology made the cut too. Both delegations pointed to a completed irrigation pilot in Bhakkar, Punjab, as proof the model works, and floated a second phase aimed squarely at small farmers.
Saudi Delegation Goes Beyond Talks
The Saudi team's itinerary went well past handshakes. They toured the National Agricultural Research Centre, met the Special Investment Facilitation Council, sat with Fauji Foundation officials, and worked through details with the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia Agri-Business Forum. That's a delegation checking Pakistan's supply chain from the lab to the loading dock the kind of due diligence that usually precedes real purchase orders, not just goodwill statements.
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Riyadh framed its interest around Vision 2030, the kingdom's long-running push to lock down food security through outside suppliers rather than domestic production alone. Pakistan's agricultural base fits that gap reasonably well, officials on both sides said. Saudi Arabia also invited Pakistan to join the International Dates Council; Islamabad accepted on the spot.
Investment came up too, though nothing closed yet. Both governments reviewed proposals from Pakistan's private sector spanning livestock, agri-food processing and the rice value chain, and agreed to keep the conversation running. The next real test comes in October, when Pakistan attends the 43rd Saudi Agriculture Exhibition in Riyadh from the 19th through the 22nd, the kind of venue where trade targets either turn into contracts or quietly fade.
None of this guarantees Pakistan hits $3 billion. Certification standards, freight costs and competition from established Gulf suppliers like India, Australia and Brazil will decide that, not press releases. What's changed this time is specificity: a dollar figure, a two-year clock and named sectors, where past rounds of Pakistan-Saudi agricultural diplomacy tended to stop at warm language about "strategic partnership." Whether that specificity survives the shipping invoices is the story worth watching between now and Riyadh in October.