Exporting mangoes

The EU ban on import of mangoes from India has opened a window of opportunity for Pakistan to boost its mango exports.

It’s mango picking time for Pakistani farmers as well as those of India, but the mood in New Delhi has soured after the European Union (EU) recently ordered an immediate halt to all mango imports from India until December 2015. What occasioned this drastic move by the EU was the discovery of fruit flies in some consignments of a selected variety of Indian mangoes. The EU takes the threat of pests being introduced into its agriculture very seriously and hence the application of an emergency handbrake. This has opened a window of opportunity for Pakistan to boost its mango exports to the all-important EU market by filling in the gap left by India’s ejection. Like any typical vendor, both regional players try to establish the superiority of their fruit to lure the largest number of buyers, and have had a close contest in the past. This could tilt in Pakistan’s favour this year as the EU ban on India’s much-cherished Alphonsos, known as the ‘King of Fruits’, has handed Pakistani growers a chance to widen the gap.

But things are not as simple as that. To take full advantage of the opening, Pakistan will have to spruce up its marketing and avoid the pitfalls its neighbour encountered. As a parliamentary secretary for Punjab aptly noted, improving farming standards and learning where India went wrong is critical to cashing in. Efforts towards this end appear to be already being made. Some 50 landowner-farmers gathered at a fruit farm near Multan recently to learn new methods of protecting mangoes from hazardous insects. The seriousness shown at learning the tricks of keeping the insects at bay is well worth it since the fruit fly hasn’t only affected India ‘but has threatened our orchards also’, according to a senior pest control official. His colleagues have been visiting farms and orchards to spread the word about the lucrative profits available if Pakistan can continue to meet EU standards. And those standards are vigorous, a fact which farmers must never lose sight of.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2014.

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