Poor post-harvest practices land Pakistan’s chilli exports in thick soup

KARACHI: Pakistan is struggling to export its premium quality chilli peppers in the world because of its poor post-harvest quality assurance practices, while competitors are dominating the global markets with their lower quality products, industry officials said on Wednesday.

Things are changing for the better as Karachi’s traders have started purchasing high-grade chilli from Sindh’s farmers through online trading.

Arif Habib Commodities (AHC), a member of the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX), is facilitating the online trade of chilli in Sindh.

Their efforts have resulted in preventing at least 50 percent losses and by this time about 600 tons of chilli has been sold through online trading under Sindh Agriculture Growth Programme, which is a World Bank funded project.

Talking to The News, Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer AHC, said they picked up the best 600 tons of chilli at an average price of Rs180/kg, while traders had purchased a mixed quality crop at Rs90/kg.

“We can export only 20 tons of chilli to Sweden, which buys it at our price but who would go there for 20 tons?” he asked. “India is selling chilli by-products in the international market at prices lower than our purchase price,” Mehanti said.

With the help of this project, growers have been able to improve the quality of the product as well as keep the aflatoxin in the chillies down to world’s standard parameters.

Aflatoxin is a chemical produced in chillies due to fungal causal organisms i.e., aspergillus flavus and apergillus parasiticus. It comes in chillies during picking, drying, handling, packing, and transportation because of the metabolic activity of fungus, physical rupturing and insect damage.

Aflatoxin is one of the sources of primary liver cancer (PLC) in human and animals. The international aflatoxin permissible level is less than five parts per billion (ppb), according to World Trade Organization.

Dr Fateh Marri, project coordinator Sindh Agriculture Growth Project, said aflatoxin is produced when chillies are dried on the ground. “They should rather be dried on green sheets,” Marri said.

He added that growers were being given 70 percent subsidy on baskets used for collecting chillies while farmers also being given Rs1,000 extra as quality premium on their consignments.

It is also important to know how online trading works. First the crop’s specifications are assessed through samples that are analysed in a laboratory set up by one of the project’s partners.

The defined quality-wise grading of these samples is posted on the website of the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange for registered buyers to place their purchase orders.

Once a buyer finalises his deal, his payment is transferred to the grower’s account within two working days. Unlike conventional marketing practice, the sellers don’t have to wait for payment or unnecessary deductions.

The crop is dispatched along with one sealed laboratory-tested sample of the commodity to the collection centre, and the buyer can compare it with the result posted on the exchange’s website. Any issue related to the quality of the crop is referred to an arbitration committee.

The project’s business-related matters are approved by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

In Sindh, chillies are grown on an area of 38.4 thousand hectares with production of 80,000 tons. Sindh contributes around 86 percent of red chillies production in Pakistan. The average yield of 1.7 tons per hectare contributes 1.5 percent of the country’s GDP.

Kunri, a small town of Umerkot that is also known as the home of red chillies, chips in around 85 percent of red chilli production of Pakistan, which is the fourth largest producer of this crop after India, China, and Mexico.

Unfortunately, half of the red chilli production is wasted due to high levels of aflatoxin and other contaminations. The growers are now learning better agricultural practices under Sindh agriculture growth programme.

The project facilitates a public-private partnership involving the chilli Growers Association to establish a common facility center in Kunri.

The expected results from chilli crop interventions would increase the productivity by 30 percent and 50 percent reduction in aflatoxin level in 20 percent of crop. About 31,020 farmers will be trained in best farming practices under this program.

This project is also designed to eliminate middlemen and establish direct online links between farmers and buyers.

Mian Saleem from Red Chilli Growers Association, points out that growers have started understanding the difference between old and modern farming practices.

“The growers will be happy if this project covers international buyers as well as the trading is currently limited to domestic buyers,” Saleem said. He added that this project was imparting state-of-the-art training to local chilli farmers.

“We never thought we will be able to meet the European and American standards, but now we are,” he said and added, “We are saving a major portion of crop from going to waste through new practices.”