Guava exports: Vapour Heat Treatment to bear fruit

Initiative part of govt’s campaign to standardise exports, avoid EU ban .

KARACHI:

After having research and experimented for over two months, the government and the private sector have succeeded in producing fruit fly-free guavas through Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT).

All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) and Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) – the apex national body to provide agricultural solutions – coordinated in the research.

“This is a big achievement for both the private and public sector stakeholders,” said Department of Plant Protection (DPP) DG Dr Mubarak Ahmed while talking to The Express Tribune.



“We conducted various complex experiments to find the right balance of temperature and humidity,” he said.

DPP is one of the 14 organisations that work under the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and provides complete quarantine facilities to the fruit and vegetable growers.

It came into the limelight last year when it took unorthodox measures in enforcing quarantine rules in the country for the import and export of fresh and other farm products.

With results of this research, the government and the PFVA have asked exporters to treat their fruits and fetch better prices in the high-end fruit export markets.

“These experiments will now encourage guava producers and exporters to target high-end export markets, which will increase the export earnings of the country,” said Ahmed.

Guava exports, like the export of other fruits and vegetables, have been severely affected because of strict screening of the government to improve export standards. The government initiative is part of an ongoing campaign to avoid any import ban from the European Union (EU) over the presence of different fruit and vegetable diseases.

Guava, however, is not among the major fruits exported from the country. Pakistan exported only 1,500 tons of guavas worth Rs37.5 million last year.

PFVA Research and Development Chairman Waheed Ahmed informed that PARC’s help would go a long way. “We believe the country would succeed in increasing the guava exports by 25% next year,” he said.

Although the warnings from EU had resulted in a steep decline in fruits and vegetable exports, it has also motivated the government and private sector to focus on standardisation of the exports to compete with other countries.

The extra cautious approach of DPP in clearing the export consignments has been the result of stern warnings received from the EU to the government of Pakistan.

Last year, the EU banned the import of five types of Indian fruits and vegetables over the presence of pests and fruit flies in the consignments.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  25^th,  2015.

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