Saturday,19 September 2020

ISLAMABAD: As cultivation of olives on a commercial scale has been growing rapidly, an olive processing unit has gone into operation at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) in Islamabad to help olive farmers promote their business. Dr Mohammad Tariq, national project director of Promotion of Olive Cultivation on Commercial Scale in Pakistan, said that an estimated 2.9 million plants on 25,600 acres have been planted so far under various projects. The fruit is being harvested in a considerable quantity in the country and it is the need of hour to provide olive processing units in major regions to facilitate olive farmers and to ensure that economic benefits of olive cultivation can directly be on passed to the farmer. Under the PSDP-funded project, nine advanced oil extraction units, three of which have the capacity of extracting 600kgs of olive oil per hour and six with the capacity of 100kgs per hour have been installed at different areas where olives are grown. These units have all the basic accessories like harvesting baskets, oil analyzer, filling, capping and sealing machine and olive oil storage containers. These oil extracting units are an important part of the olive value chain in the country and will help in uplifting this sector. The advanced oil extracting plant at NARC was inaugurated by Pakistan Agriculture Council Chairman Dr Mohammad Azeem Khan. Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2020