Pakistan sold more pink salt abroad last year and earned barely more from it.
Exports recorded under the dedicated pink-salt customs line reached about $36 million in FY2025–26 on 148,071 tonnes. The year before, they were $35 million on 127,924 tonnes, according to official documents cited by the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Volume rose by roughly 16 percent, while value increased by about 3 percent. Simple division puts average realisation at around $243 a tonne, down from about $274, a fall of roughly a tenth.
Pink salt is among the few Pakistani resources the world recognises by name, yet the export data suggest that Pakistan is increasing volumes faster than it is increasing value.
“Khewra Pink Rock Salt” was registered as a geographical indication in 2022, and a dedicated customs code now allows exports to be tracked more clearly. A 2024 customs valuation ruling of $130 a tonne also provides a benchmark against under-invoicing.
These are sensible foundations, but a geographical indication does not create a premium by itself, and a customs valuation is not an export strategy.
The Missing Link: An Integrated Value Chain
The missing link is an integrated value chain. Mining, grading, washing, food-safety certification, packaging, branding, warehousing and export distribution remain fragmented, leaving Pakistani firms with limited control over the final consumer-facing product.
The real policy challenge, therefore, is not simply to increase the quantity of salt exported but to increase the share of the final product value that is created and retained inside Pakistan.
The underlying problem is an old one. PIDE’s 2026 policy viewpoint estimates that most Pakistani salt leaves in raw form at 15 to 30 cents a kilogram, while the same resource can command several times that value after processing, packaging and branding abroad.
The broader point is clear: Pakistan participates more heavily in extraction than in the higher-value stages of the supply chain.
The question is no longer how many tonnes leave Khewra. It is who earns the margin once they have left.
Why CPEC 2.0 Matters
This is where CPEC 2.0 becomes relevant, though not because the corridor was built for salt. It was not, and no pink-salt initiative is formally a CPEC project.
The 2025–2029 Action Plan shifts emphasis towards industrial cooperation, special economic zones, agriculture and mining. An earlier joint statement also committed both sides to better planning of mining industrial parks, including downstream mineral processing.
The opportunity is to use the industrial cooperation, investment, technology-transfer and logistics architecture associated with CPEC 2.0 to build domestic processing capacity around a resource Pakistan already produces at scale.
Pink salt is a modest but clear test: can the second phase turn a commodity into an industry?
China’s Role Beyond Buying Salt
China should not be viewed merely as a market for Pakistani salt; its greater potential may lie in technology, processing, distribution and investment.
Chinese customs data reported by Gwadar Pro show Pakistani salt exports of $6.04 million in January–October 2025, about 40 million kilograms, up 26 percent. That works out near $150 a tonne, closer to bulk cargo than a premium branded product.
In May 2026, Pak Salt Corporation, a joint venture involving the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation, signed a framework agreement with China National Salt Industry Group. It covers processing, value addition and distribution.
The terms are confidential, and a framework agreement is not a completed investment. Its significance lies instead in the potential business-to-business linkages it creates: machinery, processing technology, packaging, quality standards and access to distribution networks.
For Pakistan, the objective should be to use such partnerships to build domestic capabilities rather than simply expand exports of unprocessed salt.
Punjab’s Push for Domestic Value Addition
Punjab has begun building the domestic side. On 1 October, the government launched a financing scheme offering Rs5 billion in interest-free loans, with financing of up to Rs50 million per business.
It sits alongside a 110-acre mineral processing zone at Quaidabad, planned for 200 units. Officials say value addition could add up to $300 million to annual exports.
That is a projection, not an outcome, and its credibility will depend on whether new units achieve commercial scale and secure domestic and international buyers.
Logistics Must Support the Export Strategy
Logistics deserves realism. Retail packs and industrial grades do not need a single gateway. They need predictable, affordable movement from the Salt Range through processing clusters and warehouses to whichever port — Karachi, Port Qasim or Gwadar — offers the best service.
Gwadar can be one node in that network, not the whole of it.
The rail leg is still prospective: the Karachi–Rohri section of ML-1, estimated at about $2.5 billion, is being advanced with the Asian Development Bank and remains listed as proposed.
What Should Follow?
The first priority should be to direct credit towards commercially viable units producing packaged, food-grade, wellness and industrial products, rather than financing additional bulk extraction alone.
CPEC’s industrial cooperation framework can be used to connect Chinese and other international firms with Pakistani processors for technology, machinery, quality systems and distribution partnerships on transparent commercial terms.
Pakistan should also pursue international recognition of its geographical indication while strengthening origin verification, food-safety certification and traceability so that the Pakistani label can be enforced and trusted abroad.
Processing clusters should be connected to ports through the cheapest reliable routes, with landed-cost comparisons published to guide exporters towards the most competitive logistics options.
Finally, the industry should target premium food, wellness and industrial buyers, particularly in nearby Asian markets, while building Pakistani brands rather than defaulting to bulk exports.
The measure of success, therefore, should not be how many tonnes leave the mine, but how much of the final value stays in Pakistan.
The writer is a research associate at the Centre of Excellence for CPEC, PIDE.
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