Pakistan aims at exporting mangoes worth $65 million this year

KARACHI: Pakistan aims at exporting mangoes worth $65 million this year with exporters concerned about maintaining quality rather than boosting quantity in the wake of the EU ban on mangoes from India, officials said today.

The All Pakistan Fruits and Vegetables Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association has said that it would be exporting mangoes worth $65 million this year.

Last year, the association had exported mangoes worth $60 million to different markets but this year the target has increased to 175,000 tonnes to fetch $65 million, Waheed Ahmed, the association's spokesman, told PTI.

Dispatching of mango export shipments would start from May 25, Ahmed said, admitting that the high value markets of Japan and the US would again be missed this year.

He said increase in exports to South Korea and Australia may compensate for losses. Pakistan exports around 24,000 tonnes of mangoes to the European Union markets every year.

Exporters are now highly concerned about maintaining quality rather than boosting quantity after the ban imposed by the EU on Indian mango due to presence of fruit fly, Ahmed said.

He said the overall production of mango would drop to 1.42 million tonnes this year as against expectation of 1.8 million tonnes.

Punjab would produce 900,000 tonnes as compared to 1.2 million tonnes while Sindh crop size is estimated to be 550,000 tonnes as compared to 645,000 tonnes of the last season, Ahmed said.