ISLAMABAD: A UAE-headquartered food multinational is preparing to expand its footprint in Pakistan after investing around $100 million in the country since 2006, highlighting the growing role of Gulf capital in Pakistan’s food manufacturing and broader industrial economy.
International Foodstuffs Company (IFFCO), which operates in around 50 countries, has grown its Pakistani operations from a single edible-oils and fats refinery into two refineries and five manufacturing sites, with activities now spanning seed crushing, animal nutrition and feed mills, according to the Pakistan government.
The company’s senior leadership told Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on September 14 that Pakistan remained an important market and that IFFCO intended to continue investing and expanding its business, while the minister pledged government support for existing investors and new investment.
IFFCO’s planned expansion comes as Islamabad and Abu Dhabi seek to translate longstanding political ties into larger commercial flows. Pakistan’s Foreign Office has described the UAE relationship as “strong, brotherly, built on strong foundation,” with bilateral trade close to $8 billion and a Pakistani diaspora of 2.2 million in the UAE.
Pakistan has also emphasized that its economic relationship with the UAE extends across trade, investment, energy, infrastructure, technology and manufacturing. The Foreign Office has separately rejected attempts to portray the return of matured UAE deposits as a deterioration in ties, calling it a routine financial transaction under mutually agreed terms.
IFFCO’s decision to deepen its production base in Pakistan provides a concrete example of the investment relationship moving beyond financial support toward long-term industrial activity, local manufacturing and value addition.
IFFCO’s operations also connect the investment story to Pakistan’s food security and domestic supply chains. The group operates across edible oils and fats, agriculture, confectionery, dairy, poultry and animal nutrition, giving its expansion potential implications beyond a single manufacturing segment.
IFFCO Global Group Director Abdelghani Abdullah said the company’s operations in Pakistan have expanded substantially and reaffirmed its “long-term commitment to Pakistan,” according to the government account of the meeting.
The delegation said IFFCO sees significant opportunities to grow alongside its customers and the wider Pakistani economy, while the government emphasized the importance of facilitating existing investors and creating an ecosystem that supports industrial growth, employment and greater local value addition.
The investment story also sits within a much larger economic relationship driven by the movement of people, capital and goods between the two countries.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office says the UAE hosts 2.2 million Pakistanis, while trade is close to $8 billion and the diaspora sends a similar amount in remittances.
The scale of that economic bridge was underscored in May, when Pakistan’s Consulate General in Dubai reported that remittances from the UAE exceeded $1 billion in a single month. Pakistani officials have described these flows as a major contribution to household incomes and Pakistan’s economic stability.
For Islamabad, therefore, the UAE relationship combines a large overseas workforce and remittance corridor with increasingly important investment, trade and manufacturing links.
IFFCO’s next phase in Pakistan adds another dimension: Gulf investment moving into productive capacity inside Pakistan, creating jobs, expanding manufacturing and connecting the country more deeply to an international food-production network.