Secretary General of the Businessmen Panel (BMP), Ahmad Jawad, has made clear that a consistent Pakistan horticulture export policy is vital for boosting non-traditional exports.
He said: “Pakistan is blessed with exotic taste of fruits and vegetables and the kind of value we have in our fruits its second to none compared to other parts of the country and yet this sector was only contributed around $600 million dollars only, which is even below its potential. Our priority must be to increase this figure up to two billion dollars annually."
Jawad said the world horticulture exports trade exceeds from 180 billion dollars and our regional competitors like China and India are one of the key players in this industry through value addition but in our last 70 years the concerned ministries didn't work on it aggressively, the more down fall started when we devolve agriculture and its allied sectors to provinces through 18th Amendment.
The nation’s mango, apple and potato exports need to be increased, including the precious fruits from Gilgit Baltistan (GB), that are not even optimally used due to lack of infrastructure. Though JICA, USAID, European Union provided some grants for export infrastructure of these products, it stresses that the lack of assistance from the government was one basic hurdle still to be crossed.
