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KARACHI: Pakistan on Saturday announced new policy measures to boost citrus exports, with a particular focus on kinnow mandarins, aiming to capture more overseas markets and strengthen its fragile economy through export-led growth.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research said the initiative reflects the government’s continued drive to seek regional markets as it pivots toward exports to stabilize an economy that only two years ago narrowly averted a sovereign debt default.

The plan includes easing export procedures, expanding testing facilities and introducing disease-resistant, seedless kinnow varieties to lift yields and meet international standards.

“Citrus, particularly kinnow, is a symbol of Pakistan’s agricultural strength,” Federal Minister for Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain said in a statement.

“By facilitating our farmers and exporters, introducing improved varieties, and opening new markets, the government is determined to make Pakistani citrus a globally recognized brand,” he added.

Hussain said the Department of Plant Protection has simplified pesticide residue testing and begun registering new exporters for Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states, while also opening a temporary outpost in Sargodha, the country’s main citrus-growing region, to speed up shipments.

He cited recent talks with a Russian delegation and new laboratory accreditations as steps to diversify destinations by also targeting markets in Russia, the Middle East, Africa and the European Union.

Pakistan exported 105,690 metric tons of citrus worth US$30.9 million in the first half of the last fiscal year (July-December 2024).

Citrus, led by kinnow, remains one of the country’s key horticultural exports, though the sector has faced challenges from ageing orchards, disease and climate pressures.

ISLAMABAD: The government in Pakistan’s Punjab province has promised the “biggest” rehabilitation package of its history for more than 2.6 million people, who have been uprooted by one of the deadliest floods in the province.

Monsoon rains and India’s release of excess water flooded three transboundary rivers, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej, in Pakistan’s breadbasket Punjab province in late August, submerging more than 4,700 villages and affecting over 4.7 million people, according to Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed.

The deluges killed more than 300 people and forced authorities to relocate more than 2.6 million people to safety after their homes were washed away by water torrents. Rescuers also transported over 2 million livestock stranded in 28 districts to relief camps established by the government.

Provincial officials have said that floodwaters that surged through major rivers in late August and submerged crops over more than 2.5 million acres of land were now receding, announcing that they have initiated the process of rehabilitation of the affected areas. 

“Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz is bringing the biggest rehabilitation package in the history of Punjab,” Muhammad Jawad Haider, additional director-general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), said in a statement.

“Relief will be ensured by estimating the losses of the citizens.”

Haider’s statement came a day after Nawaz said people, whose houses have collapsed, will get Rs1 million [$3,503], while the ones, whose homes have been partially damaged, will receive Rs500,000 [$1,751].

“Those whose animal has been swept away, around 900 animals have been swept away, for them we are giving Rs500,000 [$1,751] for a big animal and Rs50,000 [$175] for a goat or sheep,” she said in televised comments.

“God willing, within two weeks this rehabilitation package [will be implemented and] people will start receiving checks and [compensation] money.”

Rains, floods and landslides have killed at least 1,006 people nationwide since late June, when the monsoon season began, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

While Punjab authorities have declared the 2025 monsoon season is over, receding floodwaters continue to move southwards to merge in the Indus river in Sindh.

The Flood Forecasting Division of the Pakistan Meteorological Department warned on Saturday that the Indus river at Kotri is likely to remain in medium flood until the end of this month.

“It is requested that all concerned Deputy Commissioners/Chairman DDMAs and other relevant authorities/stakeholders may take all necessary mitigation measures,” it said.

Monsoon season brings Pakistan up to 80 percent of its annual rainfall, but increasingly erratic and extreme weather patterns are turning the annual rains, which are vital for agriculture, food security and the livelihoods of millions of farmers, into a destructive force.

The disaster has revived memories of the 2022 deluges, when a third of the country was submerged, over 1,700 people were killed and losses exceeded $35 billion.