19 April 2004	Monday	28 Safar 1425

Citrus being the largest group of fruits produced in Pakistan possesses all the potential of becoming our major exportable fruit commodity. We are one of the major citrus-producing countries but our citrus export is negligible.

Citrus fruits hold second position after grapes in the world fruit production. Brazil is the leading citrus producing and exporting country in die world. Pakistan stands in the top ten of the world citrus producing countries with negligible export (FAO, 2001).

The challenge is to capture our share of the world citrus trade, enough to put ourselves in the top ten. We are conveniently located from some major consumer markets like Middle East,Pacific countries and Europe. We must therefore improve our yield and quality to be able to compete with countries like Brazil, the USA and the Mediterranean countries.

Citrus industry refers to the cultivation/production, marketing, processing and consumption of a group of fruits known as citrus fruits. Botanically, citrus is a name for a genus in family Rutaceae. Horticulturally, it refers to all edible and root-stock species.

Of genus citrus and a few closely related genera of the family Rutaceae. Common edible fruits included in this group are sweet oranges, mandarins, grapefruit lemon/lime and many other minor categories like tangerines, pummelos, tangelos, kumquat, etc.

Citrus fruits originated in the tropics of South East Asia and were spread to the world through trade routes. Citrus is now cultivated on both sides of the equator, making a citrus belt around 35 degrees North and South, which is extended up to 44 degree latitude in south of France in the Northern Hemisphere and up to 39 degree latitude in Australia in the Southern Hemisphere.

In Pakistan, Punjab is the major producer of the citrus, 95 per cent of which is produced there. Some citrus orchards are also found in the Frontier province (NWFP), and in the province of Sindh. Little citrus is grown in Balochistan.

Between 60-70 per cent of citrus grown in Punjab is kinno mandarin. It is also the matter of fact that we are the largest produce of kinno in the world. For a little history, the kinno mandarin was evolved as a result of cross between 'King' and 'willow-leaf'. In 1915, H.B. Frost made this cross at the Citrus Research Centre, University of California, USA. It was introduced, acclimatized and released by the researchers working in the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.

Citrus fruits were not a major crop in this country before the introduction of kinno. The traditional "sangtra"' varieties and some sweet oranges were grown at scattered places. The area and production of citrus fruits expanded dramatically with the popularity of kinno.

Now it is a very popular variety in the citrus-growing areas due to its high yield, attractive appearance, higher juice contents, taste and flavour. The natural colour of kinno juice is it's additional attraction to juice processing industry as addition of artificial colour is being discouraged in the international trade.

Kinno has the following peculiar features, which differentiates it from other citrus varieties.

Easy Peel: The rind containing numerous oil glands comes off easily with bare hands since it is loosely bound compared to other types of citrus fruit. Therefore, kinno can be just peeled off and enjoyed anywhere, anytime.

Juice content: Kinno consist of several easily separated sections and high juice content. Its full-bodied flavour and its juice content combine to make a most satisfying and healthy fruit. One kinno provides sufficient vitamin C to fulfil your need for a day.

Pulp: Kinno pulp is used to make delicious desserts, jams and sauces.

Skin: The skin can be used to make cosmetics and essence.

Kinno has more nutritional value as compared to any other citrus variety. For instance., the comparison of the nutritional value of kinno and oranges is given.

RDA: Recommended daily allowances: The most interesting feature of the fruit is its size and quality, which is superior to the kinno of California and Arizona. As a matter of fact, kinno never achieved any commercial significance in its native place.

Better prices due to its export served an important catalyst for expansion of kinno industry. The production of kinno has been steadily increasing but their exports have been static since many years.

In the absence of a proper system of packing, grading and transport, Pakistan has earned a reputation for supplying poor quality products including fruits, in international export market.

The lack of understanding about the marketing methods among its growers causes a failure of successful entry into the export market. The lack of pack houses and cold storage facilities also contributes towards the poor quality fruit.

Exporters use the cheapest packaging material resulting in disastrous losses and poor reputation in the international markets. Many of the large growers intend to become exporters but lack of financial resources, trained manpower, infrastructure and lack of information about international market and export business, they hesitate to enter into export business themselves.

The Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan (EPB) has done a great job in recent years to solve such problems., but we think much work is still required to improve the export status of kinno.

Our kinno has reached Europe and to the Far Eastern markets as well. The area under kinno cultivation has been increased in recent years. It is high time to plan for such an increase and to ensure that the productivity of newly planted orchards is comparable to the best in the citrus world.

Kinno along with many merits also has some demerits. For growers and contractors, it is the longest duration crop, being very late in ripening. Its alternate beating habit i.e., heavy crop in one year and very little or no crop in the subsequent year, affects the return to grower.

As it is a very soft skinned fruit, post-harvest losses are high during harvesting and shipping. The presence of higher number of seeds and limonine, (natural compound, which makes the taste of kinno juice bitter when kept for extended period of time), making us less competitive in the international market. Late maturity also results in very short crushing season for the juice makers.

There is a need for initiation of a long term breeding programme to improve kinno by genetic means. Early maturity, regular bearing and hard find are common characters among the citrus relatives, which could be introduced into kinno. By using the tool of biotechnology seedless kinno can also be produced. Similarly kinno varieties with low limonine must be evolved.

Several types of kinno fruits are available in market. Variation is found in size, shapes., rind thickness, sugar and acid contents., number of seeds and the shade of fruit colour. This is a trend towards deterioration of kinno caused by bud mutation.

Another important cause of kinno deterioration is the presence of some virus and virus-like diseases, especially citrus tristeza vim (CTV) and citrus greening disease. The degeneration of kinno due to mutations and viruses can have catastrophic consequences.

Virus infection along with poor management is the major cause in reducing the life span of its orchards. This also contributes towards the low yield in our country. All such problems like bud mutation and viruses start and spread at the nursery stage. Citrus nursery business has neither rules and regulations nor choice of growers except to buy plants from private nurseries.

We must take necessary steps to regulate nursery business for its stable production. As a first step we must establish a foundation block of kinno in particular and other important citrus fruits in general, which should be clean from mutations and free of diseases.

These trees should be used to supply the certified budwood to nurseries to ensure the supply of certified and guaranteed plants to growers. The directorate of horticulture, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad has recently launched a certified citrus nursery project to establish and regularize the certification programme.