South Punjab's pickle tradition fades as youth turns away

MULTAN, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jun, 2026) A beautiful tradition of pickle making is dying with rapid pace in the villages of South Punjab. For decades, homes here smelled of mustard oil and spices every mango season. Women made "achaar" with pride and skill. Today, that smell is fading fast.

Not long ago, homemade pickle was a mark of a good household. Women spent days cutting raw mangoes, mixing kalonji, fenugreek, mustard seeds and spices, then sealing clay jars to ripen in the sun. Every family had its own recipe. Every jar had its own taste.

Guests knew the difference. If someone tasted homemade pickle at a meal, they would often ask the host for a jar to take home as a gift.

That culture is now disappearing.

Young women in rural South Punjab are growing distant from this tradition. Many have never learned to make pickle. Those who try often cannot get the taste right. A large number simply prefer to buy from the nearest shop.

"Our grandmothers made pickle at home first. Then neighbours started paying for it. That small demand grew into a business," said Fayyaz Ahmed, a shopkeeper in Burewala. "Factory production ended all that."

The arrival of commercial pickle companies finished what was already weakening. Factories began mass-producing achaar at low prices. Homemade pickle could not compete. Women who once earned from this skill lost their customers. And with the business gone, fewer young girls saw any reason to learn the craft.

The taste and nutrition of homemade pickle have also gone with it. Factory pickle uses preservatives and artificial methods.

<?php /*?> <?php */?>

The natural goodness of hand-ground spices, fresh raw mango and slow sun-ripening cannot be replicated on a production line.

There is also a farming loss that runs alongside this cultural one.

Every year, storms knock down thousands of raw mangoes across South Punjab. Farmers cannot sell them through normal channels. Most rot in the fields.

"Those mangoes are perfect for pickle," said farmer Malik Arif. "Small-scale production would save farmers from losses and give women a way to earn."

Farmers and food experts are now calling on the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) to step in. They want formal training for rural women in modern preparation, hygienic packaging and marketing.

"Women should be taught professional packing and branding," said farmer Shahid Hameed Bhutta. "Pakistani homemade pickle also has strong export demand in the middle East, Europe and North America."

Mango pickle remains one of the cheapest and most nutritious foods in Pakistan. Spices like fenugreek and mustard seeds aid digestion, build immunity and improve health. It is eaten at tables of the poor and the rich alike.

What is disappearing is bigger than a food item. It is a living tradition that fed families, earned women an income, reduced farm waste and carried the flavour of South Punjab from one generation to the next.

That chain is breaking. The young do not know the recipe. The old are running out of time to teach it.

It could be revived only by giving incentives and status of cottage industry.