High officials of the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) - Thailand's multinational corporation specialising in developing seed, food and livestock - will visit Pakistan on Sunday to seek investment opportunities in agriculture sector.
Official sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday the company, with annual turnover of around $ 12 billion, is interested to invest in seed and food sectors.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has instructed the ministry of food agriculture and livestock (Minfal) to give presentation to the group on potential areas, which remained untapped due to low-level of investment and expertise, they said.
Sources said some months back when minister for food, agriculture and livestock Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan visited Thailand, the group held exploratory talks with him about investment in the sector.
The delegation will meet the Prime Minister and Minfal officials to discuss avenues of investment. It will also visit Karachi and Lahore.
In an attempt to boost the economy and attract more foreign investment, the government has eased trade barriers, foreign investment regulations have become transparent and tariffs have been reduced.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data, Pakistan exported live animals and animals' products worth Rs 737 million during July. These include live animals, meat and edible meat offal, fish, dairy, honey and other edible products.
Vegetable products worth Rs 5.6 billion and prepared foodstuffs, beverages, spirits, vinegar and tobacco amounting to Rs 1.32 billion were exported.
A report prepared by the Canadian government, Agri-Food Past, Present & Future-Pakistan, in August 2005, says the processed food market has been increasing significantly in recent years and is currently worth $ 1.4 billion, of which $ 325 million is imported. It adds the consumer food sales were expanding at a rate of 10 percent annually.
Sources maintain, once these sectors were developed, Pakistan would not only be able to fulfil the domestic consumption, save foreign exchange on its import but also export the surplus.
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