While trade between arch-rivals India and Pakistan has seen many an ebb and flow, recent events have hit business harder than ever. The Pahalgam terror attack in India in April led a ban on any trade activity with Pakistan, including via third countries.
With India’s shutting down of the Attari land-transit post, Pakistan too announced that “all trade with India, including to and from any third country through Pakistan, is suspended forthwith.”
Pakistan’s Himalayan pink salt exporters faced the brunt of the ban, the country being one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of Himalayan pink salt. The Khewra pink salt mine in the Punjab province is the largest mine in the country with 30 processing units.
In 2024, Pakistan’s total pink salt exports stood at 3,50,000 tonnes, estimated to be worth USD 120 million. India also happened to be one of its biggest importers of the Himalayan pink salt.
Interestingly, India was also ranked among the top three exporters of salt, along with China and Pakistan despite the fact that it produces a very small amount of rock salt.
“For years, Indian importers imported raw Himalayan pink salt from Pakistan and then it was refined, packaged and marketed/exported to other countries as a finished Indian product at higher prices,” claims Mansoor Ahmed, senior director at Ghani International, one of Pakistan’s top exporters of the Himalayan pink salt and related products.
While India was a lucrative market for Pakistani exporters – the period between November, 2023, and October, 2024, saw 3,789 shipments of the pink salt from Pakistan to India, marking a growth of 10 per cent year-on-year – souring diplomatic relations translated into India imposing a 200 per cent import duty on all Pakistani imports.
Heavy tariffs meant feasibility of doing business went down for both exporters and importers.
The trade ban, Ahmed confesses, has hit exporters like him hard. “The ban has meant zero exports to India,” he laments.
Ehsan Malik, CEO of Pakistan Business Council, says that Pakistan depended heavily on India for fruits, vegetables, pharmaceuticals, organic chemicals and sugar. “Our imports were higher than our exports to India; pink salt being our main export,” he says.
The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry cites data that shows exports to Pakistan between April, 2024 – March, 2025 were around USD 600 million, while imports were a meagre USD 0.42 million.
Malik points out that actual figures could be much higher, if trade via third party countries was to be considered.
With trade relations between the two neighbours souring, exporters on the other side of the border have taken it with a pinch of salt. Even though bilateral trade fell to USD 1.2 billion in 2024 from a peak of nearly USD 3 billion in 2018, Pakistan’s traders have taken this as an opportunity to explore new markets.
Saima Akhtar, chairperson of the Pakistan Salt Manufacturers Association (SMAP), says Pakistan’s Himalayan pink salt is already in huge demand globally due to its perceived health benefits and culinary uses.
“The salt was sold in the Indian retail market for ₹45 to ₹50 per kg. But now, it is being sold at rates as high as ₹70 to ₹80 per kg,” she reveals.
Shehzad Javed, CEO of Ittefaq Companies, one of the key producers and exporters of Himalayan pink salt, says Pakistani pink salt exports to China had increased in the first quarter of 2025.
Around 13.64 million kilograms of salt worth USD 1.83 million was exported to China, a 40 per cent increase from the same period in 2024, he informs.
“We are now pursuing increased exports to USA, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Australia, Turkey, Netherlands, Italy, UK, Germany, Brazil, UAE, Japan, Singapore, Chile, South Africa, Russia, which are major importers of pink salt,” adds Javed.
Pakistan is also working its way through restrictions on trade with the European Union, especially with regards to issues surrounding permissions to access the EU’s markets.
This means that Pakistan may be able to circumvent the Indian route to export its pink salt to Europe.
SMAP official Ismail Sattur says the Pakistan government implemented the Geographical Indications Act of Pakistan in 2020. “Pink salt is now tagged as a GI of Pakistan. However, the process to get it registered as a Pakistani product in international markets is ongoing. Once the salt’s authenticity as a Pakistani product is established, its origin and specific qualities recognised and protected, Pakistani exporters would be able to trade it to the EU markets,” he says.
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