DPP to blame for snags in exports

KARACHI: The All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) has accused the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) for creating hurdles in mango exports to Iran.

In a letter addressed to federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam, the association highlighted the gross irregularities exercised in the process of inspection and approval by the department officials and demanded necessary disciplinary action against them.

The Iranian quarantine team during its visit to Karachi and Quetta prior to mango season in September/October 2019 conducted an inspection of 19 HWT plants and of these approved only five for processing the mangoes for export to Iran.

The PFVA members and the owners of the disapproved HWT plants made frequent requests to the department for provision of Iranian team’s detailed report, but to no avail.

Due to COVID-19, the Iranian authorities concerned, in a letter addressed to the DPP, advised it to carry out re-inspection of the six disapproved plants, simultaneously dishing out the minor deficiencies so that these plants can also be approved, the letter reads.

The Department of Plant Protection did not share anything about the letter from the Iranian authorities and instead sent a letter dated June 24, 2020 to PFVA, which was received on June 27, informing about the visit of a team for a technical audit of the six disapproved plants, while the date of the visit of the team was not mentioned in the letter.

It is quite surprising that the department had already inspected three of the six disapproved plants on the same day (June 27, 2020).