Business

First successful sea shipment of mangoes to UK and Netherlands

Marks & Spencer and Solfruit International have expressed interest in Pakistani mangoes.

Kashif Hussain August 14, 2010

KARACHI: Marks & Spencer and Solfruit International have expressed interest in Pakistani mangoes after two shipments of Chaunsas were successfully shipped to the UK and the Netherlands by sea for the first time.

Freight charges of mangoes by sea is 50 per cent less than air freight which means that Pakistani exporters can now get a better price in the European market.

The overall arrival quality of Chaunsa sent to the European mainstream market on July 17 from Pakistan via sea received positive feedback from both importers, Univeg Katope and Solfruit International. The shipping was done by FA International, a local export firm, in collaboration with the USAID Firms project.

This is the first-ever shipment scientifically processed under the Firms treatment plant installed in Rahimyar Khan and Multan, according to the Vice Chairman All Pakistan Fruits and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association, Aslam Pakhali.

“The mangoes tolerated nearly four-week voyage very well,” according to the agriculture consultant, USAID Firms project Pakistan, Dr David Paicha. He was very optimistic about the overall quality of the fruit.

The container of mangoes sent from Ali Tareen Farms arrived in good condition on August 10 at Univeg Katope in Spalding, England. And it arrived successfully at Solfruit International in Barendrecht, Netherlands.

Clive Bayston and Tim Brill of Univeg Katope were very impressed with the flavour and quality of the fruit. Univeg Katope will test market several pallets of the fruit with leading supermarket retailers like Morrisons and Marks & Spencer. They will also send some pallets to the wholesale market and may send one to Bakker in Barendrecht, Netherlands.

Gustavo Rodriguez of Solfruit International was very much impressed with the flavour of the mango and interested in sustained future shipments of Pakistani mangoes.

This is great news for the next mango season, but even this season, Solfruit is interested in receiving another shipment of White Chaunsa in the second last week of August.

The transit time of three weeks was weathered well by the fruit due to proper preparation. However, the mangoes lacked firmness and were at a ready-to-eat stage, even though they were not shrivelled, thus they had to be sold immediately. The fruit that arrived here on Friday was basically four weeks after harvest and it potentially has another week of market life. Thus, more work is still required to fine-tune both pre-harvest and post-harvest care.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (5)

Munzir Raza | 13 years ago | Reply The efforts of FIRMS in exporting mongoes via sea is great acheievment. It is good news for mango industry in Pakistan. I really appreciate the efforts of Pakistan Australia Agriculture Sector Linkages Program (ASLP) for conducting the basic reserach work required for this leap. Indeed first trial shipments were made under ASLP. If I am not wrong the the frruit was sourced from the same farms and brought very good results. ASLP Teams made all the resulst public so many exporters were benefited. May I also add that as per my information all these are research-trial shipments not commerecial ones. I hope we all will have the chance to experince of wlaking back to supply chain of mango.

Ray Collins | 13 years ago | Reply Under the Australia-Pakistan Agricultural Sector Linkages Program (ASLP), which started in 2006, successful sea freight shipments of mangoes have been made to Europe in the last two years. While this recent shipment is a laudable effort, it is incorrect to state that it is the first successful sea freight shipment of mangoes to Europe. ASLP is a co-operative effort involving mango growers in Pakistan, Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, The University of Queensland, DEEDI Queensland, Agriculture and Food Western Australia, and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.