Mango crisis: Pakistan unclear over export strategy
Harvest Tradings Director Ahmad Jawad has said expats living in the US might once again wonder whether they will be able to buy Pakistani mangoes from their local grocery stores.
“Pakistan has been working for a long time to tap into the American market with its high quality mangoes. The conditions and requirements set for Pakistani mango exports to the US have made it a costly matter.”
Although Pakistan has its own irradiation plant in Lahore – M/s Paras Foods – under a joint venture of Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company (PHDEC), but it has not been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) yet.
However, Islamabad and Washington agreed that irradiation was the best treatment. To facilitate this, the USDA created a first of its kind system to allow safe import and irradiation of Pakistani mangoes in the US, but this option is economically not viable for Pakistani exporters.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2014.