{"id":15262,"date":"2025-12-11T11:21:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/12\/11\/pakistan-launches-domestic-tea-strategy\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:43:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:43:05","slug":"pakistan-launches-domestic-tea-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2025\/12\/11\/pakistan-launches-domestic-tea-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan Launches Domestic Tea Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Islamabad, the Government of Pakistan and the Food and Agriculture Organization unveiled the countrys first domestic tea commercialization strategy, signaling a coordinated push to develop a local tea industry. The launch brought together federal and provincial leaders, development partners, technical experts, tea growers and private-sector representatives under FAO guidance.<\/p>\n

Pakistan currently spends more than USD 600 million a year on tea imports, and the new strategy aims to replace a portion of those imports with locally grown tea through climate-smart methods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Supported by the FAO Tea Technical Cooperation Programme, the plan provides a step-by-step roadmap to build a vertically integrated tea sector anchored in sustainability and market quality.<\/p>\n

The initiative begins in Mansehra district, where the first phase will plant tea across 600 acres<\/strong> using 2.4 million<\/strong> nursery-grown tea plants. Farmers will receive FAO-led training in modern cultivation and small, efficient processing units will be established near plantations to preserve quality and reduce post-harvest losses. Interest-free government financing will enable farmers to adopt tea as a long-term crop.\"\"<\/p>\n

Project targets include an annual output of 2,500 metric tons<\/strong> of green leaf by 2030 and creation of more than 2,000 jobs<\/strong> in the initial production cluster, with the wider tea sector expected to benefit over 70,000 rural residents<\/strong> by 2040. The strategy places emphasis on women\u2019s economic participation, soil conservation, carbon sequestration and the emergence of local tea branding and eco-tourism opportunities around plantations.<\/p>\n

Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal highlighted Pakistans chance to build a quality-focused, climate-resilient tea industry from the ground up, stressing environmental sustainability and expanded opportunities for rural communities. FAO Acting Representative James Okoth underlined the multisectoral partnership that brought federal ministries, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, research institutions such as NTHRI, investors and communities together for implementation.<\/p>\n

Ms. Kiyal Akmatbek, FAO Head of Office in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reaffirmed FAO technical assistance in farmer training, research collaboration and investor facilitation. FAO International Consultant John Snell, speaking remotely, pointed to Pakistans potential to produce high-quality orthodox tea<\/em> and the market opportunity as younger consumers shift away from CTC blends, offering a chance to reduce foreign exchange outflows while supporting rural resilience.<\/p>\n

With the rollout in Mansehra, Pakistan begins a practical transition toward domestic tea production that aims to strengthen rural livelihoods, advance climate-smart agriculture and progressively lower dependence on imported tea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Act now: Pakistan’s domestic tea strategy to cut imports, create jobs and boost local production through climate-smart cultivation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-education","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15266,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions\/15266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}