Sao Paulo, 18 March 2022 (TDI): Waqas Alam, the Consul of Trade and Investment at Pakistan’s Consulate in Sao Paulo, coordinated an online business-to-business meeting on the topic of “Opportunities to import Pakistani dates to Brazil”.

The meeting was arranged by the Office of Trade and Investment of the Embassy of Pakistan in the Federative Republic of Brazil and the ‘Emerging Pakistan’ initiative.

The ‘Emerging Pakistan’ project is an initiative by Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce to promote Pakistan’s economic and other opportunities presented by Pakistan.

Brazilian and Pakistani business delegates, officials from the Pakistan-Brazil Chamber of Commerce, and diplomats took part in the meeting. They explored ways to expand the Pakistani date market in Brazil and enhance trade between the two countries.

According to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Pakistan is the sixth-largest producer of dates in the world. One estimate claims that Pakistan produced 455,987 metric tons (MT) of dates in the year 2019.

In July 2020, The National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce asked the Ministry of Commerce to find alternative markets for Pakistani dates to diversify its export base. This meeting was held as a part of this effort to expand Pakistan’s dates export.

Pak-Brazil ties

Brazil was the first South American country to establish official diplomatic relations with Pakistan in 1948. Both nations have a long history of cooperation across many fields, including trade and commerce, defense, agriculture, and sports.

A bilateral trade agreement was signed between the two countries in 1982 to remove the trade barriers and improve economic relations. The agreement is still in effect to this day.

Football is one of the major Pakistani exports to Brazil. Sports ties and defense cooperation between the two countries have also grown over the years.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR