This was said by exporters during a seminar and top exporter awards ceremony on "Fruits, Vegetables & Processed Value-Added Products Export: Prospects and Challenges" organised by Agro Food Research & Resource Centre (AFRRC) here at Karachi Gymkhana on Saturday.
The exporters who come from different parts of the country expressed their concerns over the absence of Commerce Minister and Chief Executive (CE) TDAP, who were scheduled to be participated the seminar. They also criticised the lack of interest on the part of government in the promotion of agro based exports.
However, Bashir Hussain, Chief Executive (CE) Pakistan Horticulture Development and export Company (PHDEC), who was also the chief guest of the seminar said as the minister was unable to attend the programme, he was assigned to represent the government. Amir Malik, a fresh fruit and vegetable exporter, said, the fares of air shipment of fruits through the private airlines were more costly, which increase the cost of export.
The exporter has to pay 1650 dollar extra to the private airlines for each shipment of 3.5 ton of fruits via Dubai as the Indian employees at Dubai airport were deliberately creating problems to the Pakistani exporters through additionally charging them, he added.
He further alleged that the transport mafia in the country was also involved changing the trains' timings to divert the transporting goods towards their goods forwarding services, which are comparatively costly to the exporters. Binyamin Yousuf, another exporter, said that a joint platform was needed with searching new markets in the world for Pakistani fruits and vegetables.
Naeemullah Naeem, said that though the fruits have world demand but the country could also generate revenue through value addition that juice comparatively has more demand. Having long life of one year, almost 500 thousand liters of juice could be extracted from one ton of fruits, he added. Shahid Sultan, a Kinnow exporter, said despite having a large quantity of Kinnow, Pakistan was still exporting the D-class fruit to the underdeveloped countries.
"Against over pride of exporting sweet fruits, the world has now started demanding fruits of less sugar," he said adding that the concerned authorities should go to the fields to see the market demand. Babar Khan Durrani, of Durrani Associates of Importers, Exporters, Processor and Researcher, said that the associates had introduced food processing technology in the country and the fruits could now be exported through the sea routes.
Through the technology he said, mangoes could be stored and saved for at least 37 days. Almost 500 ton mango had exported to Iran previously and it was looking the markets in Syria and Lebanon. Abdul Wahid, chairman, All Pakistan Fruit & Vegetable, Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association, said that the institution like PHDEC should be given more power to deal with the issues related to exports effectively as the working of the company including TDAP was facing delay due to lack of co-operation.
"Inertia has plagued TDAP," Bashir Hussain, CE, PHDEC said adding that the company should have detached from the authority the day it was formed. He said the PHDEC is likely to have more authority/power to improve the sector as the ministry of commerce has already been approached. "We are trying to resolve the issue of certification, through introducing a joint certificate with the consensus of all countries to avoid the delay in export and import activities," he added.
The government, he said, would also give financial support to the exporters. Usman Hassan, Director General, Services, TDAP also said that there was a duplication between the two institution, which should be cleared by the government. Earlier, Rubeena Rasheed, President AFRRC, also briefed the exporters about the centre's activities. She also read out the message of Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Federal Minster for Commerce. Later, the awards and gold meddles were distributed among the top exporters of fruits and vegetables.