PESHAWAR – For decades, Pakistan’s poultry farmers supplied their eggs to regional markets across the Gulf, East Africa, and Asia. But this year, the story took a remarkable turn. For the first time, eggs from Pakistan have found their way to supermarket shelves in the United States — a shift that marks a quiet but significant transformation in the country’s agricultural exports.
According to the Department of Animal Quarantine, Pakistan has exported 1.899mn dozen eggs to the United States since 1 July 2025, generating 2.37mn US dollars in revenue. The figure, while modest in scale, carries symbolic weight. It signals that Pakistan’s poultry industry — long confined to regional buyers — is now tapping into high-value Western markets.
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As Pakistan’s economy struggles to expand its export base beyond textiles, the rise in egg exports — particularly the entry into the US market — may seem minor, but it reflects a broader trend: a slow, steady shift toward diversification, where even something as ordinary as an egg carries the promise of extraordinary change.
Officials say the country’s total egg exports for the 2024–25 fiscal year have risen sharply, reaching 18.25mn US dollars, compared to 14mn US dollars in the previous year. The growth comes from both conventional and value-added products — including 1,169 metric tons of liquid eggs, exported primarily to Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, with a total value of 2.61mn US dollars.
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Pakistan’s traditional buyers remain strong. The United Arab Emirates continues to lead, importing 17.22mn US dollars worth of eggs during the fiscal year, followed by Hong Kong (544,000 US dollars), Bahrain (3.29mn US dollars), Kuwait (3.16mn US dollars), Somalia (241,000 US dollars), and Afghanistan (1.07mn US dollars).
The inclusion of the United States in this list is a milestone. For Pakistan’s exporters, it represents not just diversification, but validation — proof that the country’s veterinary controls, hygiene standards, and logistics chains can now meet stringent international requirements.
Behind the numbers is a quiet story of adaptation. Poultry producers have modernized hatcheries, invested in feed quality, and adopted internationally compliant cold-chain systems. What once began as a small domestic trade has grown into a network that now stretches from Karachi’s docks to warehouses in Houston.
