All Pakistan Fruits and Vegetables Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) in its budget proposals submitted with federal government to improve trade in horticulture products, has demanded reservation of Rs. 100 million for extensive Research and Development to explore new varieties of Kinnow.
The kinnow industry’s worth is of Rs. 130 billion and its export from USD 220 million has declined to USD 110 million (50 percent ), since the variety of Kinnow in Pakistan is 60 years old while the global practice is to change variety after 25 years, said Waheed Ahmad Patron in Chief of PFVA on Saturday.
In the budgetary proposals of PFVA, Waheed Ahmad submitted that the existing variety of Kinnow was engulfed with various diseases leading to reduction in its shell life and therefore it could not withstand longer transit time of 15 to 45 days. Of the total export of fruits and vegetables, the kinnow contributes 30 percent, he added.
Currently, there are 250 kinnow factories and 0.25 Million workforce is employed and If we can manage to develop new verities then our export can be enhanced to USD 350 million within four years, Waheed estimates, he said and added, the PFVA proposals also included withdrawal of 10 percent Federal Excise Duty (FED) on juice industries to increase its sale from Rs. 43 billion to projected Rs. 70 billion.
“The decline in sale after enforcement of 10 percent FED has led to the industry being unable to utilize its installed production capacity, with no new investment made or planned for 2023-2024,” Waheed added.
This shrinking business size, he said will have an unfavorable impact on sales tax revenue and the overall allied industry, leading to unemployment while also negatively impacting fruit farmers linked with it, he continued.
The imposition of 10 percent FED is impacting affordability of the products produced by documented players, resulting in a large proportion of consumers shifting to low-priced, low quality and possibly unsafe alternatives offered by the undocumented sector, which is almost 20 percent of the industry size, he expressed.
“In an other proposal, PFVA demanded exemption of mushrooms including fresh, frozen, preserved in bottle, canned or packaged from sales tax”.
Currently, 75-80 percent Mushrooms are being imported from China and other countries for our consumption so in order to encourage local grower sales of local mushrooms either fresh, frozen or otherwise preserved be exempted from tax to discourage the imports and save foreign exchange, he added.—APP
