Experts from the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, said that a new system will have to be adopted to gain its share in the global market through food processing and value addition. They said that with more than 240 million consumers globally, Pakistan has become the seventh largest consumer market in the world, while the share of the food industry in Pakistan’s industrial sector is 27 percent, which is contributing 16 percent of the total employment in this sector. Similarly, Pakistan has become the fifth largest country in the world by producing 65 billion liters of milk annually, but due to the lack of a proper food processing and value addition system, only 4-5 percent of milk is being processed.

They said that poultry is the second largest industry in the country after cotton, which employs 130 million people, while 25.8 percent of the total meat production is obtained from chicken meat. Despite this, we are at the very bottom among the countries exporting meat in the international market. He said that 6753 tons of fresh fruits are being produced in the country but due to lack of post-harvest technology and food engineering system, most of the produce is wasted, so we have to adopt a new system to get our share in the global market. He said that at present, more than 94 thousand Global Gap producers in 100 countries of the world are sending their produce to foreign markets and their number will increase immensely in the coming years. He said that countries like Pakistan can classify their products under British standards, especially BRC, in this regard, so far 17 thousand BRC certified producers from 73 countries are offering their products for sale. He said that there is a great demand for food engineering all over the world, so this initiative by the university is a good step.