Falling mango production

Mango exports are a good earner of foreign exchange for Pakistan. Unfortunately this source of forex is being affected due to natural causes for the past two years. In 2021, the earnings from export of the fruit had declined by $72 million as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and in the current year too, the prospects of mango exports are no better either due to a sudden rise in temperature from early April and water shortage, though this year growers and exporters were optimistic about a 100% increase in mango exports. However, the untimely and prolonged heatwave as well as lack of water have dashed hopes of increasing mango exports. This year the sudden rise in temperature was another freak event caused by climate change.

In Pakistan and several neighbouring countries, this abnormal situation led to summer directly from winter skipping the spring season. This has caught farmers and horticulturists, including growers of mangoes, unawares, thereby badly affecting the production of agricultural commodities and fruits. Exporters and growers of mangoes say the untimely heatwave struck at a time when mango flowers need less heat to grow, and mango trees require sufficient watering which helps the fruit to mature to its proper size. The combination of rise in temperature and water shortage is likely to reduce the production of the fruit by 50%. It will naturally result in a significant drop in exports. Now fruit exporters have cut the export target for mangoes by 25,000 million tonnes. Last year Pakistan exported 125,000 million tonnes of the fruit. The country’s average production of mangoes is 1.8 million tonnes.

Pakistan is among the five top growers and exporters of mangoes in the world. Pakistani mangoes are much in demand in foreign countries for their taste, flavour and size. In recent years, the situation brought about by climate change has rendered the cultivation of mangoes unprofitable in various parts of the country. This is forcing cultivators of mangoes to cut mango trees on a large scale in order to switch from horticulture to agriculture.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2022.

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