According to a statement from the All Pakistan Fruits and Vegetables Exporters, Importers and Merchants (PFVA), released Monday 16 May, this season Pakistan has set its mango export target at 100,000, which would mean earnings of $75 million in foreign exchange.
Last season, the country exported 72,000 tons of mangoes—the lowest level over the last five years. The exporters had fixed 100,000 tons target for 2015 season.
Dispatching of mango export shipments would start from May 20.
The association’s chairman Waheed Ahmed said the production of mango is expected to reach close to 160,000 tons during this season due to an improvement in production amid better weather conditions.
Ahmed also said that mango growers experienced a 40 percent decline in production owing to unfavourable weather in mango growing belts in Sindh and Punjab.
He also informed that fruit exporters would again not be able to access the high value markets of Japan this year due to not meeting its standards.
The Japanese trade authorities have mandated for the tropical fruit exports to go through strict plant quarantine inspections in the importing country to ensure that quarantine pests are present in fruits are sterilised. A vapor heat treatment is a method for such a treatment.
Almost three years have passed, but exporters have still not installed a vapor heat treatment plant.
