Phytosanitary weaknesses deepen Pakistan’s agricultural export decline
Pakistan’s exports of rice, sesame, potatoes, mangoes and citrus are declining as phytosanitary compliance becomes a larger barrier to international markets. Repeated EU alerts involving Pakistani rice point to weaknesses in plant quarantine, food-safety enforcement and corrective action.
Declines spread across major export crops
Pakistan’s agricultural export slowdown is extending across rice, sesame, potatoes, mangoes and citrus, while phytosanitary alerts are raising questions about the country’s ability to meet increasingly strict requirements in destination markets. Profit Pakistan Today reports that the problem now goes beyond production costs, international prices and weak demand, with shortcomings in plant quarantine and food-safety enforcement becoming a constraint on access to higher-value markets.
Rice shipments to European Union member states fell from 492,239 tonnes in 2023 to 309,704 tonnes in 2025, a decline of more than 37%, according to data cited by the publication. Exports had remained close to the 2023 level in 2024, at 486,445 tonnes, before falling sharply the following year.
The weakness continued in 2026. Pakistan shipped 231,675 tonnes of rice to the EU during the first seven months, compared with 287,139 tonnes in the corresponding period of 2024. The figures do not provide a comparison with the same period of 2025, but they reinforce the broader pattern of reduced volumes reaching a key regulated market.
Sesame, potatoes and fruit also lose volume
Other agricultural products recorded similarly large contractions. Sesame exports declined from 269,771 tonnes in 2023 to 169,076 tonnes in 2025, a drop of 37.3%. Potato exports fell by 52.6% year on year in 2026, decreasing from 884,863 tonnes in 2025 to 419,547 tonnes.
Fruit exports also weakened. Mango shipments dropped from 106,634 tonnes in 2024 to 94,621 tonnes in 2025. For 2026, the Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association, or PFVA, set an export target of 80,000 tonnes, indicating expectations of another lower season. Citrus exports decreased from 259,566 tonnes in 2023 to 181,784 tonnes in 2025.
Each product faces its own production, pricing and market conditions, so the declines cannot be assigned to a single cause on the available evidence. Their breadth, however, places greater scrutiny on the shared infrastructure behind agricultural trade: farm-level controls, inspection, certification, traceability, pest management and coordination between provincial and federal authorities.
EU alerts expose enforcement concerns
Rice offers the clearest regulatory warning. Profit Pakistan Today says European Union border-alert records show repeated interceptions of Pakistani consignments over several years. The publication argues that the recurrence indicates an absence of adequate technical corrective action by provincial agriculture departments and the federal bodies responsible for plant protection and food safety, including the Department of Plant Protection and NAFSA.
Repeated alerts can affect more than the rejected or detained cargo. They increase inspection risk for later shipments, add testing and handling costs, delay clearance and make buyers more cautious about suppliers from the same origin. For Pakistani producers, processors and exporters, restoring volumes therefore depends not only on price competitiveness or harvest size, but also on reliable compliance before goods leave the country.
The export data do not establish how much of each decline resulted directly from phytosanitary failures. They do show that several important crops are losing external sales at the same time that Pakistan’s regulatory controls are facing criticism. Unless inspection, prevention and corrective procedures improve, exporters may find it increasingly difficult to retain access to demanding markets and secure higher-value contracts.
