KARACHI, July 10: The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) epidemic in China during the last few months has shifted many foreign buyers of potato and onion towards Pakistan. This has been one of the main reasons in increasing the export of these two major commodities to many countries.

The overall vegetable exports during July-June 2002-03 fetched $23.53 million as compared to $19 million in the previous fiscal, showing a rise of 24 per cent, an official at the Export Promotion Bureau said.

Pakistan usually exports onion, potatoes, mushroom, garlic and other vegetables to various destinations. The share of onion and potato in the country’s overall exports is over 80 per cent.

The EPB official told Dawn on Thursday that exporters had fully utilized the Sars benefit by capturing the markets where China used to enjoy major share. Many foreign buyers had suspended the import from China in fear of Sars epidemic.

He said Malaysia had emerged as a potential market for Pakistani onion and potato.

Falahi Anjuman Wholesale Vegetable Market (Super Highway) chairman Haji Shajehan said that during the last six months of the fiscal 2002-03 exports of onion and potato had intensified, since majority of exporters had started sending shipments to Malaysia.

On domestic front, he said, bumper crop of onion and potato had been the main reason as exporters had surplus commodity for export without fearing shortage in the domestic markets.

He said Pakistan had shipped quite high quantities this time and got quite better prices. Till July-April 2002-03 — overall exports of vegetables stood at 129,605 tons ($18 million) as compared to 101,307 tons ($16 million) in the same period of 2001-02. Pakistan’s overall exports of vegetables during July-June 2001-02 were 130,394 tons ($19 million).

Mr Shahjehan said till today Malaysia was still a lucrative market for vegetable exporters. He claimed that foreign buyers had preferred to buy Pakistani vegetables because of quality and competitive price.

As far as prices at domestic markets are concerned, onion prices during July-November 2002 remained on the higher side, ranging between Rs9 and Rs12 per kg at retail level. In the same period, consumers had paid Rs8-12 per kg for potato. In October 2002, some dealers had to import onion from India to overcome shortage in the market, which resulted in stability of prices by one rupee to Rs2 per kg in November 2002.

In January-June 2003, onion prices fell remaining in the range of Rs4-5 per kg because of start of Sindh’s new crop by the end of December 2002, followed by start of Balochistan crop few months back. Potato prices during January-June 2003 also plunged hovering between Rs6 to Rs8 per kg.

The average consumer prices of onion and potato during 2002-03 remained at Rs7.5 and Rs8.5 per kg, respectively.