‘Ripening centres to boost fruit exports to $1.5bln/year’

LAHORE: Pakistan should build ripening centres and Controlled Atmosphere Storage (CAS) to meet the needs of modern fresh produce markets of world, an industry official said on Tuesday.

“This can easily help the country raise its annual fresh fruits export to $1.5 billion in two years,” said Ahmad Jawad, Vice President of Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) in a statement.

“If we establish ripening centres with proper treatment, our fresh fruits would fetch double rates, besides increasing the export volumes.” In this regard Ministry of Commerce might devise a policy and allow zero percent duty on import of required machinery by issuing specific SRO.

Similarly five-year tax holiday could also be granted to the respective firms that would operate the facility in a bid to encourage private sector investment.

Jawad said Pakistani mangos were naturally blessed a brix level from 18 to 22, which was ideally for any buyer, but in order to maintain uniformity of brix level in every mango carton, proper ripening centres were required. In high value markets, he said, buyers required same uniformity on each consignment in the form of brix level, but Pakistan had failed to manage this due to lack of technology, which was not acceptable for high-end buyers.

“Even in local markets, fruits are ripened with Calcium Carbide which is not international standard for health, even this chemical is carcinogenic.”

Calcium carbide might be replaced by ‘Ethylene’ and it would be better if it was done through proper ripening centres as it was easier and safer to use and left no residue, he said.

The horticulture expert said Pakistan’s annually production was more than 2 million tons of mangoes but the exports hardly crossed 150,000 tons mark, which was nothing compared to the potential. “Surprisingly, certain segments of exporters every year issue impractical statements as to why the country has failed to achieve mango exports target,” he added.