Discovery of fruit fly infested mangoes in one of the shipment from Pakistan in the United Kingdom (UK) has threatened import of Pakistani mangoes to the European Union this year. Concerned authorities in Pakistan had made bold claims that all the necessary measures have been taken to ensure quality control of the Pakistani mangoes in a bid to increase the export of the exotic fruit to EU in be presence of ban on Indian mangoes. The Department of Plant Protection (DPP) decided to stop exporting mangoes to UK and EU without hot water treatment with immediate effect.
UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on June 17 inspected a shipment of mangoes from Pakistan it was found infested with fruit fly. This is the first case of fruit fly infestation of Pakistani mangoes. If four more such shipments are found, EU will impose the ban on the import of Pakistani mangoes.
Department of Plant Protection (DPP) has taken precautionary measures to avoid any possible EU ban and have decided to export only those mangoes which have received the hot water treatment to kill all the fruit flies.
Pakistan earned about $25 million by exporting mangoes to EU during 2013 mango season. EU earlier had banned Indian mangoes and it is an opportunity for Pakistani mango producers to fill the gap with good quality and better tasting mangoes from Pakistan.
