Pakistan is exploring new markets in Asia, North Africa and Russia in an effort to become a major player on the international fresh produce export scene, a leading shipper reveals.
Ahmad Jawad, CEO of Islamabad-based grower-shipper Harvest Tradings, told Fruitnet.com that Pakistan is broadening its export horizons, and is shipping higher volumes of fruits and vegetables to Chinese and Central Asian markets, in particular, as trade ties with China continue to deepen.
Pakistani exporters have also started exporting potatoes to Russia and citrus to Japan, he added.
Traditionally, Pakistan has focused on markets in the US, Europe, East Asia and the Middle East.
This broader export strategy has helped significantly boost Pakistan's produce export earnings, Mr Jawad said. Foreign exchange earnings through fruit and vegetable exports have risen from US$169m in financial year 2007, to US$359m in 2010.And produce exporters are this year (2011) expecting earnings of over US$500m.
But a lack of post-harvest and coldchain infrastructure is seriously hampering Pakistan's fruit export potential, Mr Jawad told Fruitnet.com.
'Every year 2.2m tonnes of vegetables and 2.8-3m tonnes of fruits go to waste during and after harvest,' he said. 'This is too big a loss – roughly 30 per cent of `Pakistan's` total vegetable production, and about 40 per cent of fruits.'
Public-private initiatives are needed to invest in technologies to enhance produce shelf-life and boost export prices, he said.
A lack of awareness among Pakistani exporters about global food safety standards, cohesive supply chains, and marketing systems are also to blame for keeping the country's produce export volumes low, Mr Jawad added.
Mr Jawad identified Pakistan's dates as fruits with great export potential.
'Pakistan remains focused on exporting apples, mangoes and citrus fruits. It is not exploiting the full potential of date exports that can fetch lots of foreign exchange,' he said. 'Our country produces `a lot of` fresh dates, some of which can fetch as much as Rs1,000 (US$11.3) per kg in export prices if graded and processed using modern technology.'
Denmark has recently expressed interest in importing dates from Pakistan, he added.
