Pakistani mango exports will start from 25 May this season, reports the local press.
Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce fixed the date in a bid to prevent unripe and uncoordinated shipments from disrupting export markets.
The export target is set for 175,000 tonnes, potentially worth around US$60m, reports claim.
Total production is expected to reach 1.55m tonnes this season, up from 1m tonnes last year, despite a 25 per cent drop in yields in Sindh province due to bad weather, which has delayed picking in most growing-regions by two weeks.
In a bid to boost Pakistan’s mango exports this year, the country’s national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) says it has improved its handling facilities and aims to double its share of mango exports to 30 per cent.
“We have designated special managers who will look after all mango export operations, and have acquired new equipment to facilitate cargo operations,” PIA general manager cargo Shahid Khoso told the All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable Exporters, Importers & Merchants Association (PFVA).
Waheed Ahmed, PFVA chairman, said Pakistan could also increase its mango exports to Europe if PIA started chartered cargo flights to Amsterdam, from where the fruit could be shipped across Europe.
“We receive huge orders from Europe but since we have limited cargo operations we fail to grab most of the opportunities,” he said.
A limited volume of mangoes will also be exported to Japan this season after being processed by a pilot Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) plant donated by the Japanese government.
But the continued closure of the Iranian market due to international trade sanctions continues to blight the sector and will cost Pakistan’s mango industry US$10m this season, said Ahmed.
Pakistan traditionally shipped some 30,000 tonnes of mangoes to Iran. The loss of this legal trade has led to a surge in mango smuggling to Iran via land routes, he said.
