Australia allows import of Pakistani mangoes

Permission boosts confidence, encourages industry to invest .

KARACHI:

After South Korea, Australia has also allowed Pakistani mango imports after analysing various hot water treatment plants in the country which may encourage more investments in the fruit treatment sector in Pakistan.

The back-to-back successes from different countries with lucrative markets have significantly boosted the confidence of Pakistani fruit exporters who are now looking for new ways to invest in the fruit treatment technology to explore more markets.

However, despite these recent achievements of local fruit exporters, industry officials say that fruit and vegetable exports cannot get a boost unless Pakistani growers improve their product quality at pre-harvesting stages.

Fruit exporters blame fruit and vegetable growers for most of the industry’s problems saying that most of the fruit is damaged even before it reaches big cities where processing plants are located. Even leading Pakistani fruit exporters are struggling to maintain their product quality putting most of the blame on weak infrastructure and primitive pre-harvesting techniques.

Chief executive of Durrani Associates Dr AQ Durrani on Thursday said that mango exports of 0.145 million tons, a paltry sum if compared to Pakistan’s total mango production of 1.8 million tons, could be easily increased threefold in the next two to three years with the help of hot water technology.

He was speaking to a group of journalists here at a local hotel.

With time, efficiency of hot water treatment, a technology that help maintains the freshness of fruits, has been increased from seven days to 40 days. The use of the latest technology can help increase Pakistani fruit exports, he added.

Latest technology has not only increased the shelf life of mangoes but it has also been very helpful in making mango pulp free from nine types of bacteria by maintaining temperature at 47 degree Celsius, said Durrani.

Pakistani exporters recently acquired two new hot water treatment plants, which they claim are the biggest in the world as far as hot water technology is concerned.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2013.

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