Nestle invests in mango juice supply chain

‘The Chaunsa Project’ aims to train farmers in best practices

LAHORE: The interest of multinational food and beverage giants to invest in Creating Shared Value (CSV) programmes in Pakistan is helping different communities to incorporate best global practices in their business.

The most prominent example is of the dairy sector, where different companies have generally struggled to engage hundreds of thousands of milkmen as part of their supply chain to meet the ever-growing demand in Ultra High Treated and Pasteurized milk in the country.

Apart from milk, the juices segment has seen a massive growth in recent years. Unfortunately, majority of orchard farms in Pakistan are unable to produce quality fruit pulps, as they are still relying on old farm practices.



In 2013, Nestle Pakistan initiated ‘The Chaunsa Project’, (premier Mango variety) to fulfil its future juices segment demand. The company as a pilot project had chosen eight mid-size mango farms in South Punjab region, the owners of whom would benefit from training on best farm practices to increase yield and improve quality of Chaunsa mangoes with the end goal of making them a part of their juice value chain.

“Some three decades ago, the company started its milk project by engaging and training the local community, In Chaunsa project, we are almost standing at the same level today,” Ali Ashar Syed, Corporate Manager External Projects Nestle Pakistan, told The Express Tribune.

Apart from corporate orchard farms, majority of the farmers are unable to get best produce as they are somewhat hesitant to adopt time consuming global practices.  In 2014 Pakistan produced around 1.7 million tons of mangoes, a figure much lesser than its neighbouring country India, which produced 15 million tons and China which produced 4.3 million tons of mangoes.



“It was hard for me to neglect the traditional way of farming,” said Mohsin Baig, a mango farmer in Multan, who is part of the pilot project. “After adopting these techniques, I am getting at least double the price of per-acre yield.”

Syed said that from next year they will expand the project to 25 mango farms, which will help them introduce some new products in future.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2016.

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