Lifestyle fair to promote direct trade with India
Trade Development Authority Chief Executive Tariq Iqbal Puri has expressed the hope that the upcoming Lifestyle Pakistan exhibition in New Delhi will help Pakistan’s textile designers and industrialists make a mark in the huge Indian market and also improve the country’s image in the world.
Following the Lifestyle Exhibition, to be held from April 12-15, a show of Pakistani culture and products will be organised in Mumbai, he announced. But before that, an exhibition of Indian products will be held in Karachi.
Puri said 70% of products to be displayed had reached India through Wagah border while exhibitors will start leaving on April 9. In the exhibition, Pakistan’s top designers, textile companies, leather product manufacturers, footwear, jewellery, furniture and handicraft makers will showcase their products.
Indian firms to participate in ‘My Karachi’
A large number of Indian companies will participate in ‘My Karachi’ exhibition to be organised by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry in July, said Senior Vice Chairman Younus M Bashir. He said the Mumbai Chamber of Commerce had booked 50% of the Karachi Expo Centre for participating in My Karachi, adding 60 Indian companies had agreed to take part in the show.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 7th, 2012.
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But there are numerous Indian companies that already make spice mixes, juices, jams and pickles according to the Indian taste. Add to that the various global food brands.
So those would not be something Pakistan should be exporting to India.
I think Pakistani frozen foods like kababs, naans, etc., and fruit juices like the infamous Ahmadi mango juice, will find enormous markets in India. Also, spice mixes by National and Laziza brands, to name just two. Pitted dates and processed dried fruit, to add value to the basic product, and pickles, jams etc.
Today, 60% of tomatoes from north Indian mandis are landing up in Pakistan, IN SPITE of the inefficient crossing at Wagah that drives up trade costs. I wonder why tomatoes, which are an easy crop to grow, should suffer shortages in Pakistan which has had a foreign presence in retail grocery markets since 1996. Surely these giants will find it in their best interests to invest in the rural areas to ensure steady supplies of fruit and vegetables at stable prices? Why are they not doing this, and why are more people not pointing a searchlight at the positive or negative roles at this multinational sector on the agricultural economy? It would be interesting to learn why citrus yields in Pakistan are only half that in Punjab, even though extension services are government run in both halves of Punjab.
Where is the so-called private entrepreneur, and the large international sector, and why are they not investing in Pakistan's future development in a coordinated way, from field to the processed high-value export? Yes, there are power shortages, bur these groups can afford their own power and still generate handsome profits, owing to the price points of the finished products in international and specialty markets: think about those who can regularly buy frozen kababs, korma, naan etc!!! Price is not the first issue with them, excellent taste and convenience is.