Pakistan faces a critical national health emergency, with four out of every ten children under the age of five suffering from stunting. Addressing this crisis requires looking beyond basic food availability to focus heavily on safety, preservation, and affordable distribution, according to industry experts at a recent two-day high-level dialogue in Islamabad.
Speaking at the event, Noor Aftab, Director of Corporate Affairs (Pakistan, Middle East, North, and West Africa) at Tetra Pak, emphasized that ensuring food security depends on fortifying the “critical middle” of the supply chain—processing, packaging, storage, and transportation. Highlighting that high nutritional content is meaningless if food is unsafe to consume, Aftab called for urgent structural reforms, including updated food-safety legislation and targeted tax relief, to keep nutrient-rich foods affordable amid rising inflation.
The dialogue underscored key opportunities for national reform:
- Dairy Industry Transformation: Despite being one of the world’s top milk producers, Pakistan struggles with low farm-level yield. Boosting farm productivity alongside processing capacity can improve farmer livelihoods, enhance national nutrition, and open avenues for export.
- Targeted School Nutrition: Expanding school feeding programs—leveraging safe, packaged milk and fortified beverages—offers a proven framework to directly counter childhood malnutrition while supporting regional agriculture.
- Systemic Regulatory Alignment: Panelists concluded that resolving the malnutrition crisis mandates standardized nationwide food-safety laws, better workforce training, and aligned financial incentives across the entire supply chain.
