KARACHI: Mango exports during the current season have increased by 42% in 2019 compared with the last year, it
was stated by Muhammad Ashraf, Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Horticulture Development and
Export Company (PHDEC), Ministry of Commerce, in a post-season seminar on mangoes held at
Federation House Karachi on 30th September 2019.
The seminar was organised by the PHDEC in collaboration with All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable
Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) to take stock of outgoing mango season and
formulate strategy for the next season in consultation with the stakeholders. More than 100
stakeholders representing the mango growers, processors, exporters, freight forwarders and airfreight
carriers participated in the event. The representatives of the government organisations including Trade
Development Authority of Pakistan, Department of Plant Protection, Pakistan Customs and Provincial
Agriculture Departments participated in the seminar.
“We had a record mango export season this year. More than 115,000 tonnes of mangoes have already
been exported to 57 countries of the world and the season would be closing around 120,000 tonnes, an
all-time record of Pakistan’s mango exports, said Muhammad Ashraf in his opening remarks during the
seminar. In value terms mango exports till 25th September 2019 have exceeded 93 million compared
with 79 million during the corresponding period of the last season”. He appreciated the role of exporters
in sustaining the exports in the existing markets and exploring new markets for Pakistani mangoes.
It was encouraging that the share of mango exports in premium-priced markets e.g. United Kingdom,
Saudi Arabia, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands was steadily increasing. Moreover,
Pakistani mango was diversifying its market coverage and was rapidly penetrating the Central Asian
market, which constituted 16% of Pakistan’s mango exports with an export growth of 38% in 2019
compared with the last year.
Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Waheed Ahmed, Patron-in-Chief of PFVA said that Pakistan's horticulture
exports were on the upward trajectory and horticulture can join the billion dollar export club from the
current levels of US$ 750 million in one year. He highlighted the issues in the entire mango supply chain
e.g. harvesting, post harvest handling, infrastructure deficit like absence of cold storage facilities at the
airports and gaps in marketing. Since the mango consumer in the global market is becoming more and
more quality conscious, we need to work more on product development than export marketing. The
infrastucture at airports may be developed for adequate handling of produce. While we should work on
the exports of fresh mangoes, there is the need to increase value additon. On the marketing side, we
need to focus on mainstream importer rather than ethnic segment.
Mirza Ikhtiar Beg, Senior Vice President, FPCCI said that airfreight cost as the total cost of mango export
was high, which needed to be rationalised.
Dr. Tariq Khan, Director Department of Plant Protection (DPP) emphasised the need of adopting the
quality assurance measures so that international trade in horticutlure did not become a pathway to
spread of plant diseases across the borders. We need to adopt a system approach for pest risk
management, since the SPS requirements of the countries were evolving and Paksitan should follow a
dynamic response system to meet those requirements.
The participants appreciated the initiatve of PHDEC and PFVA to organise such consultative session
immediately after the outgoing season so that strategy for the next season was developed well in
advance instead of discussing the critical issues a few weeks before the next season. They demanded
the development of smart technologies for the horticulture processing and increasing market access for
Pakistani mango by negotiating mutual recognition agreements with the importing partners so that the
testing reports of Pakistani laboratories are accepted in the importing countries.
