Staff Reporter
Karachi
Mango export from Pakistan is expected to start off with a delay due to COVID-19 Pandemic and exporters have requested the officials to allow the labour from South Punjab to travel and work in mango farms to save billions of rupees worth of the yield.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, former chairman FPCCI Standing Committee on Agriculture, Ahmad Jawad said that Pakistan annually produces roughly 1.7 million tonnes of mangoes which are exported to more than 50 countries, mainly to UAE and Saudi Arabia. He said that last year the country recorded five-year high mango exports of 115,000 tons and earned $80 million in foreign revenue.
Jawad feared that this year, there was very low chance of export of mangoes especially from Sindh due to COVID-19. He stated that mango harvesting season usually began from May 15 in Sindh. Most of the mango orchards owners hired skilled labour from South Punjab for harvesting, grading, processing and packing of export quality mangoes.
But due to COVID 19, there was no transport and the labourers could not travel so mango harvesting could likely to suffer. Exports of mangoes from south Punjab began after export from Sindh province. Sindh set the trend for mangoes exports. When there was low export from Sindh province then it also affected exports from Punjab; because exporters of Karachi may not take interest in mango exports.
“Similarly there’s hardly any availability of commercial flights to transport mangoes and the cargo planes and freighters that are available had their costs tripled compared to the normal rates. This has another impact to compete in the market, based on price.”
