LAHORE, Sept 11: Iran on Sunday relaxed the kinno quarantine requirements, particularly regarding the cold treatment, and agreed to keep kinno at 22C for 16 days against the previous requirement of 20C for 22 days. According to Mr Shamoon Sadiq, head of PHEDB, the revision of rules should further facilitate kinno export to Iran, which was already gaining momentum.

Iran, he said, used to be one of the biggest market for Pakistani fruits, especially kinno and mangoes, but it was lost to other competitors. The recent signing of MoU with Iran should help improve situation.

Iran has already ordered bulk kinno import during the recent visit of a Pakistani delegation to the country. Now, he said, it was up to Pakistani exporters to build capacity for handling bulk supply orders from the international market.

He hoped Pakistan was well on its way to taking horticulture exports to $400 million in few years time, if the markets like China, Iran and Eastern European countries were properly exploited.