{"id":23480,"date":"2026-06-02T14:29:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/?p=23480"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:30:28","slug":"the-diplomacy-of-quality-pakistans-new-route-to-global-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/?p=23480","title":{"rendered":"The Diplomacy of Quality: Pakistan\u2019s New Route to Global Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n

A Pakistani olive oil from Loralai, in Balochistan, has made its mark on the global stage by winning the Gold Award in the Quality category at the 2026 London International Olive Oil Competition. The olives grown on Loralai’s farms are cold-pressed to maintain their premium characteristics and bottled by Casa Loralai, marketed under the brand name of OEVO. The medal is the headline. The story underneath it is the better part: an overlooked district, farmers who have been at this for years, and a country slowly finding how local products can become instruments of economic diplomacy and soft power.<\/p>\n\n

OEVO is not alone. A year earlier, a separate Loralai brand took a Silver at the 2025 New York competition, the first extra virgin olive oil from Pakistan, or anywhere in South Asia, recognized there. Two brands, two competitions, two years, one small district in Balochistan. That pattern is more telling than any single award. It shows that Pakistan’s global image does not have to rely only on traditional diplomacy, strategic geography, or political narratives. It can also be built through quality products that travel, compete, and win in international markets.<\/p>\n\n

Balochistan has sat outside Pakistan’s mainstream economic story for decades. The conversation about it runs on poverty, underdevelopment, and security. All real. But there is another Balochistan underneath that wide terrain, a climate that suits olives, and farmland nobody has fully put to work yet. These wins are a small window into that second version of the province. They also show how economic diplomacy begins at home. A country cannot project a better image abroad unless it first recognizes the productive value of regions that are usually discussed only through crisis.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Figure 1. From Loralai to London: OEVO’s orchards sit in Loralai, Balochistan, while Casa Lorelai is based in Lahore. Other olive-growing zones (KP, Potohar\/N. Punjab) shaded for context. Source: AI Geo Navigators boundary data (2026).<\/p>\n\n

What earns premium extra virgin olive oil its reputation is partly polyphenol content, the naturally occurring compounds behind the oil’s antioxidant properties, shelf stability, and flavour. Oils high in polyphenols command higher prices internationally. Pakistani olive oil from these high-altitude Balochistan farms has been noted for exactly that profile, which is why recognition of this kind goes beyond good marketing. It points to the actual product in the bottle. For Pakistan, this matters because soft power is not created by slogans alone. It grows when foreign consumers, judges, buyers, and institutions begin to associate the country with quality, reliability, and distinct regional value.<\/p>\n\n

The global market puts Pakistan’s position in perspective. Spain is the world’s largest producer by a wide margin, and it has turned olive cultivation into a serious economic sector and a piece of its national identity abroad. Pakistan is nowhere near that scale as its olive oil output for 2024\/25 is estimated at roughly 1,500 tonnes against around 5,000 tonnes of consumption, so the country still imports most of what it uses. That gap is the opportunity. With suitable land across Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the Potohar region, there is room to grow the sector if it is developed with patience, policy support, and a clear export strategy.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Figure 3. Pakistan’s olive oil supply gap, 2024\/25 crop year. Source: International Olive Council estimates.<\/p>\n\n

Pakistan’s progress here is recent but quick. The government’s Olive Cultivation Initiative, launched in 2012, handed farmers certified saplings, extraction units, training, and export support. What started as an agricultural experiment is turning into a sector with real export potential. This is where economic diplomacy becomes practical. Trade missions, embassies, investment boards, and export promotion bodies can use products like Pakistani olive oil to open doors in niche markets, especially in Europe, the Gulf, North America, and East Asia. A premium agricultural product can carry a national story more effectively than a formal statement because it enters homes, restaurants, retail shelves, and trade fairs.<\/p>\n\n

Another marker came in May 2026, when Pakistan signed the instrument of accession to become a full member of the International Olive Council, the Madrid-based intergovernmental body that sets olive oil trade standards under the UN framework. The accession still has to be deposited with the UN Treaty Section to fully complete. Membership is not ceremonial. It opens access to international quality standards, research collaboration, technical training, and easier entry into high-value markets. It also gives Pakistan a platform to present itself as a serious new entrant in a sector usually associated with Mediterranean economies. In diplomatic terms, this is quiet but useful positioning.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Figure 4. Key milestones in Pakistan’s olive sector, 2012-2026. Sources: Pakistan Ministry of National Food Security & Research; IOC; NYIOOC; LIOOC.<\/p>\n\n

Entrepreneurs and brands get the credit for putting Pakistani olive oil in front of international judges. But the farmers behind it deserve equal billing. Every award-winning bottle starts with communities running orchards, managing harvests, and holding onto agricultural know-how through genuine economic hardship. Most of those farmers do not have the resources for branding, packaging, marketing, or export logistics, so their work stays invisible next to the finished product on a foreign shelf. If Pakistan wants to turn this sector into a soft-power asset, government support has to reach further down the chain than exports and investment. It has to reach farmers’ training, income, and stability. No agricultural success holds up if the people at the base of the supply chain do not share in it.<\/p>\n\n

There is a second source of upside in Pakistan’s wild olive stock. Large populations of wild olive trees grow in areas including Zhob and parts of the former FATA region. Wild olives do not yield oil at the commercial grade of cultivated varieties, but they are a real biological asset. Agricultural researchers are looking at grafting, joining cultivated varieties onto existing wild rootstock to lift productivity and expand cultivation faster. Done at scale, that could raise output, cut planting costs, and make use of trees already in the ground. It could also make Pakistan’s olive story more locally rooted, rather than dependent only on imported models of agricultural development.<\/p>\n\n

The wider takeaway from Loralai is that Pakistan’s next economic openings may not come from the sectors people expect. Sometimes they come quietly out of agriculture, local enterprise, and regional ingenuity. OEVO’s Gold shows Pakistani products can clear international bars when quality, vision, and follow-through line up. It also shows that regions usually seen through the frame of deprivation can hold serious potential for national branding and external engagement.<\/p>\n\n

Pakistan is hunting for sustainable economic routes, export diversification, and positive standing abroad. The olive sector offers all three at once. What happened between Loralai and London is bigger than one Gold medal. It is about shifting how an overlooked region is seen, backing farmers as hard as entrepreneurs, and recognizing that the country’s next soft-power story might already be growing in its orchards.<\/p>\n\n

Given the right support, olive oil could become more than a crop for Pakistan. It could become a tool of economic diplomacy, a marker of regional renewal, and proof that local potential, properly backed, can earn recognition in the global market.<\/p>\n\n

Samina Tippu is an MPhil scholar in Peace and Conflict Studies who writes on regional affairs, development, and emerging socio-economic trends. She currently serves as Center Director at Berlitz Islamabad.<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Pakistani olive oil from Loralai, in Balochistan, has made its mark on the global stage by winning the Gold Award in the Quality category at the 2026 London International…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-nuclear-order-and-geopolitics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23480"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23489,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23480\/revisions\/23489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strategicforecast.cissajk.org.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}