Pakistani Olive Oil Brand Makes History at World Competition

Summary

Loralai Olives, the first Pakistani brand to be rec­og­nized at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, is focused on pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity olive oil through strict con­trol over the pro­duc­tion process, sus­tain­able farm­ing meth­ods, and inter­na­tional qual­ity cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. The com­pa­ny’s suc­cess is expected to open new mar­ket­ing and export oppor­tu­ni­ties, ulti­mately ben­e­fit­ing local farm­ers and the econ­omy in rural Balochistan, while also inspir­ing Pakistan to become a lead­ing force in the global olive oil indus­try.

With the right weather, good land and a ded­i­cated team, Loralai Olives has made his­tory as the first Pakistani brand to be rec­og­nized at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity con­test.

“We dreamed of Pakistan being rec­og­nized among the lead­ing olive-pro­duc­ing nations. To achieve that, it was clear that a top-class, inter­na­tion­ally com­pet­i­tive brand was nec­es­sary,” said Shaukat Rasool, the chief exec­u­tive and co-founder of Loralai Olives.

Spread across more than 40 hectares, the farm is planted with Coratina and Arbequina olives, cho­sen after years of research on what vari­eties would thrive in the unique ter­rain.

It reaf­firms a belief we have car­ried from day one: with pas­sion, pre­ci­sion, and purity, world-class qual­ity can rise from any­where — even from the remote hills of Balochistan.- Shaukat Rasool, CEO, Loralai Olives

“The cre­ation of Loralai Olives was inspired by the incred­i­ble trans­for­ma­tion under­way in Pakistan’s agri­cul­ture sec­tor, espe­cially through the government’s flag­ship ini­tia­tives pro­mot­ing olive farm­ing,” Rasool said.

Shaukat Rasool, the chief executive and founder of Loralai Olives (Photo: Loralai Olives)

“With strong pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships, mil­lions of olive trees have been planted across the coun­try,” he added. ​“The gov­ern­ment has been actively sup­port­ing this move­ment by pro­vid­ing olive plants, mod­ern irri­ga­tion sys­tems, extrac­tion facil­i­ties and stor­age infra­struc­ture — lay­ing the foun­da­tion for a thriv­ing olive oil indus­try.”

For his part, Rasool chose to plant his olive trees in Loralai, Balochistan, because of the favor­able soil and cli­mate con­di­tions, along with the ele­va­tion.

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“The region’s dry, tem­per­ate cli­mate and long sun­light hours cre­ate the per­fect envi­ron­ment to grow olives with excep­tional fla­vor pro­files and high oil con­tent,” he said. ​“However, our vision is not lim­ited to Balochistan alone.”

“Pakistan is blessed with diverse cli­matic zones, offer­ing ideal con­di­tions for olive farm­ing in sev­eral regions,” he added. ​“Alongside Loralai, we are actively work­ing in Pothohar Plateau and other suit­able areas, build­ing a nation­wide move­ment for high-qual­ity olive pro­duc­tion.” 

Rasool said the key to the company’s suc­cess­ful pro­duc­tion this year was main­tain­ing strict con­trol over every step of the process.

“Our teams con­tin­u­ously mon­i­tor the orchards, care­fully inspect­ing the trees to ensure the fruit remains healthy, free from faults and har­vested at the opti­mal stage of ripeness,” he said. ​“Once ready, the olives are hand-har­vested with great care and imme­di­ately trans­ported to state-of-the-art extrac­tion mills sup­ported by the gov­ern­ment of Pakistan.” 

“By min­i­miz­ing the time between pick­ing and extrac­tion, we pre­serve the fresh­ness, nutri­tional value and fla­vor of the olives,” Rasool added. ​“This metic­u­lous orchard-to-mill approach allows us to pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil of the high­est qual­ity.”

Rasool credited the role of the Pakistani government in funding the state-of-the-art mill that produced his award-winning olive oil. (Photo: Loralai Olives)

Post-pro­duc­tion, the oil is stored in tem­per­a­ture-con­trolled stain­less steel con­tain­ers to main­tain fresh­ness and qual­ity. Rasool also works with a group com­pany to store the oil prop­erly until it reaches the mar­ket.

“For pack­ag­ing, we only use dark-col­ored glass and ceramic bot­tles to pro­tect the oil from light and pre­serve its purity,” he said. ​“Finally, every batch goes through lab test­ing to ensure it meets inter­na­tional extra vir­gin olive oil stan­dards for acid­ity, purity and sen­sory qual­ity.”

Rasool indi­cated that win­ning a Silver Award for its del­i­cate Arbequina mono­va­ri­etal marks a new chap­ter for the com­pany and puts the entire coun­try on the olive oil world map.

“We are hon­ored to be rec­og­nized at the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition,” Rasool said. ​“It reaf­firms a belief we have car­ried from day one: with pas­sion, pre­ci­sion, and purity, world-class qual­ity can rise from any­where — even from the remote hills of Balochistan.”

“Our monocul­ti­var Arbequina is dis­tin­guished by its smooth, fruity fla­vor with sub­tle notes of green apple, almond and fresh herbs, com­bined with a light, sweet aroma rem­i­nis­cent of green leaves and trop­i­cal fruits,” he added.

Winning at NYIOOC is expected to open new doors for Loralai Olives, espe­cially in mar­ket­ing and exports. The company’s var­i­ous inter­na­tional qual­ity cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, includ­ing ISO 9001, ISO 22000, HACCP, and Halal, fur­ther sup­port this.

“We antic­i­pate this achieve­ment will sig­nif­i­cantly boost our brand cred­i­bil­ity, open­ing new doors for mar­ket­ing col­lab­o­ra­tions, pre­mium posi­tion­ing in retail chan­nels and stronger sto­ry­telling around qual­ity and ori­gin,” Rasool said. 

“On the export side, the award gives us a pow­er­ful val­i­da­tion that will help us build trust with inter­na­tional buy­ers, dis­trib­u­tors and retail part­ners,” he added. ​“We expect a surge in demand from key mar­kets like the United States, the Middle East and Europe, and we are prepar­ing to scale our oper­a­tions.”

Rasool also believes the ben­e­fits gar­nered from win­ning this award will ulti­mately help bol­ster local farm­ers and the econ­omy in rural Balochistan.

Loralai Olives boasts 40 hectares of Arbequina and Coratina olive trees in Balochistan. (Photo: Loralai Olives)

“We are inspir­ing farm­ers to view olive cul­ti­va­tion as a path to inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion and sus­tain­able pros­per­ity,” he said. ​‘Our suc­cess has moti­vated many farm­ers to take pride in their work and adopt mod­ern olive farm­ing prac­tices.” 

“LO is deeply com­mit­ted to engag­ing with local com­mu­ni­ties through con­tin­u­ous train­ing, knowl­edge-shar­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion to improve cul­ti­va­tion tech­niques, enhance qual­ity stan­dards, and max­i­mize yields,” he added. ​“By doing so, we are not only uplift­ing the agri­cul­tural econ­omy of regions like Loralai and Pothohar but also build­ing a strong foun­da­tion for Pakistan to become a lead­ing force in the global olive oil indus­try”.

This year’s olive har­vest in Pakistan showed signs of growth and adap­ta­tion. According to Loralai Olives, the changes are becom­ing more vis­i­ble.

“The cli­mate of Pakistan has a sig­nif­i­cant impact on olive har­vests, par­tic­u­larly in regions like Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where olive cul­ti­va­tion is expand­ing,” Rasool said. 

“Last sea­son, the olive har­vest in Pakistan was gen­er­ally good in yield and qual­ity,” he added. ​“However, we observed an ear­lier-than-usual har­vest due to ris­ing tem­per­a­tures and shift­ing weather pat­terns linked to cli­mate change. Higher tem­per­a­tures accel­er­ated the ripen­ing process, lead­ing farm­ers to ini­ti­ate har­vest­ing ahead of the typ­i­cal sched­ule.”

However, Rasool quickly points out that the county’s farm­ers over­came these chal­lenges, demon­strat­ing the grow­ing resilience.

“Continued cli­mate vari­abil­ity, how­ever, stresses the need for more adap­tive prac­tices and tech­no­log­i­cal sup­port to sus­tain and enhance future har­vests,” he added.

As cli­mate change con­tin­ues to affect weather pat­terns across olive-grow­ing regions, main­tain­ing con­sis­tent qual­ity has become more chal­leng­ing, but also more crit­i­cal. 

The Loralai Olives team meets this chal­lenge by focus­ing on sus­tain­able farm­ing meth­ods that pro­tect the envi­ron­ment while ensur­ing their oil stays pure and fla­vor­ful.

“At Loralai Olives, sus­tain­abil­ity is a core part of our mis­sion,” Rasool said. ​“We pro­mote water-effi­cient irri­ga­tion sys­tems like drip irri­ga­tion to con­serve water resources, and we encour­age organic farm­ing prac­tices by min­i­miz­ing the use of syn­thetic chem­i­cals.” 

“Our orchards are man­aged with a focus on soil health and bio­di­ver­sity, using nat­ural com­post­ing and cover crop­ping tech­niques to main­tain long-term fer­til­ity,” he added. ​“In pro­duc­tion, we uti­lize energy-effi­cient cold extrac­tion meth­ods and ensure min­i­mal waste.”

Rasool said the indus­try’s long-term chal­lenges include improv­ing local knowl­edge about har­vest­ing, milling and bot­tling, expand­ing cold-chain infra­struc­ture and ensur­ing sus­tained access to inter­na­tional mar­kets.

However, he said the gov­ern­ment has sup­ported the indus­try along the way.

“Loralai Olives has received valu­able sup­port from gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tives pro­mot­ing olive cul­ti­va­tion and pro­duc­tion in Pakistan,” he said. ​“The gov­ern­ment has allowed us to show­case LO at major exhi­bi­tions free of cost, help­ing us build vis­i­bil­ity and con­nect with buy­ers and stake­hold­ers.” 

“Additionally, we have ben­e­fited from access to state-of-the-art extrac­tion facil­i­ties at sub­si­dized rates, which have been instru­men­tal in main­tain­ing high pro­duc­tion stan­dards while keep­ing costs com­pet­i­tive,” Rasool added.

Quality certifications and international awards demonstrate the credibility of high-quality Pakistani extar virgin olive oil production. (Photo: Loralai Olives)

With grow­ing recog­ni­tion and steady back­ing, Loralai Olives is now look­ing ahead, with big expan­sion plans.

“In the next five years, we envi­sion Loralai Olives becom­ing the face of Pakistan’s olive indus­try, proudly rep­re­sent­ing the coun­try on the global stage,” Rasool said.

“My advice to aspir­ing entre­pre­neurs is sim­ple: always focus on qual­ity and set your tar­gets to achieve the best,” he added. ​“Build your rep­u­ta­tion on excel­lence, and oppor­tu­ni­ties will fol­low”, he advised aspir­ing pro­duc­ers.”