Only 6% of mango output exported

Alvi said there was a bumper crop this year while last year no mango consignment was returned due to fruit fly issue

MULTAN: Pakistan has the largest mango cluster in the world spread over 370km which starts from Kabirwala and culminates at Fazilpur in Rahimyar Khan. “We export only 6% of our total production and eat lion’s share of it ourselves,” Mango Research Institute Director Mushtaq Alvi said, adding there was a bumper crop this year while last year no mango consignment was returned due to fruit fly issue. He said the institute had recommended the Punjab government to install up to 10 new hot water treatment plants because the existing nine did not serve the purpose in the province. Furthermore, Alvi said that guava ought not to be planted alongside or near mango orchards since guava tends to attract fruit flies, and their plantation proves to be a hotbed for such flies. He also advised farmers to bury the fruit flies that they find, because, burying the flies would solve most of the problems associated with these flies.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2016.

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