Rehabilitation: Horticulture company needs to be restructured

Ministry asked to appoint a regular CEO for PHDEC’s smooth running

KARACHI: The All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) has urged Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir to immediately restructure the Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company (PHDEC) for giving a boost to the sector’s exports.

In a letter written to the commerce minister, PFVA Chairman Waheed Ahmed said the PHDEC had been dormant and was wasting a considerable administrative budget without any output. It should be revitalised and strengthened expeditiously as announced in the trade policy framework for 2015-18, he said.

Ahmed noted that a decision on appointment of a regular CEO had yet to be made by the ministry and it should be taken without any delay to enable the PHDEC to function effectively. The PHDEC is a federal body with the objective of developing horticulture and taking care of distinct exportable products in all four provinces. “Therefore, the PHDEC’s head office should be in the federal capital with field offices in provincial capitals as well as production clusters,” he suggested.

Ahmed was of the view that the PHDEC should develop a horticulture strategy in collaboration with federal and provincial institutions and in consultation with the PFVA, which was an important stakeholder and familiar with ground realities, trends in international markets and demand-supply issues that affected exports.

During the tenure of previous government, he alleged, many people were appointed in the company on political considerations including the chief executive officer.

Last year, he said, the ministry tried to rectify the situation by terminating services of the CEO and reconstituting the board of directors comprising a group of motivated stakeholders.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2016.

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