Pakistan’s mango sales and export revenue have grown by US$43m thanks to US government-funded international development project USAID Firms.
The project, which started in 2009 and provides technical and financial support to Pakistan’s mango growers in a bid to boost their business, facilitated an export value growth of 44 per cent in 2013 compared to the baseline year, USAID says.
Project-supported mango farms and processors exported US$9.2m worth of mangoes last year, and total mango revenues from partner farms equalled US$21.8m.
“The project is going well,” says USAID Firms project value chain specialist Umair Piracha. “It has made a tangible difference to Pakistan’s mango exports. Last mango season partner farms exported a lot to Europe and other countries under the scheme.”
The project, which is due to end at the close of this year, helps farmers maximise yields, improve product quality and implement better handling and packaging techniques to reach new high-value export markets, explains Yasir Shaikh of Imtiaz Enterprises, one of the grower-exporters involved in the scheme.
“The project is working very well,” he says. “It is helping to educate growers and exporters, find new export markets and fund new facilities.”
Through the mango scheme, USAID hopes to stimulate job growth and investment in vulnerable areas in Pakistan, and thereby undercut the basis of extremism.
“Socio-economic stabilisation of vulnerable areas in Pakistan is in the strategic interest of and has been an urgent priority for the US government,” says Piracha.
Pakistan’s mango sector represents four per cent of the world’s total production and contributes US$1509m per year to Pakistan’s GDP, according to USAID.
