LAHORE, Nov 1: Pakistan has exported over 100,000 ton mango this year against 77,000 ton last year, says Shamoon Saqid of the Pakistan Horticulture Develop-ment and Export Board (PHDEB).

Talking to Dawn, he said kinno export target had also been fixed at 200,000 ton, up from the last year’s 150,000 ton.

He said the country was expecting a bumper kinno crop this year and had prepared an aggressive marketing strategy to promote the fruit in world markets.

“As a first step, the board has revised export target upward.”

He said last year the target was 150,000 ton, but the actual export remained 122,000 ton. It was because of bad crop and hike in duty by Indonesia on kinno from five per cent to 25 per cent. This resulted in substantial drop in exports to Indonesia — from 30,000 ton previous year to 8,000 ton last year, he said.

Mr Sadiq said Pakistan suffered an export loss of 22,000 ton on Indonesian account alone.

The crop was also bad last year and the entire month of April went without any export, he said.

But this year, he said, the board would concentrate on international delegations and expositions, domestic and international logistics and product promotion in the world market because of bumper crop.

Shamoon Sadiq said the PHDEB was also pursuing the matter of duty with the Indonesian authorities under the Early Harvest Programme through the commerce ministry.

The board would also concentrate on quality management through the implementation of pre-shipment inspection and awareness on grades and quality standards through training, he said.

A partial breakup of the export target is: Saudi Arabia 5,000 ton, Philippines 5,000, Indonesia 5,000, Afghanistan/CIS 20,000, Sri Lanka 5,000, Russia 5,000, East Europe 5,000, West Europe 2,000, Canada 1,000, Iran 30,000, China 5,000 and Bangladesh 2,000 ton.