June 17, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

ISLAMABAD, June 16: The Export Development Fund (EDF) Board on Friday approved an amount of Rs250 million for assistance to promote the export of mangoes to European destinations. This was decided in a meeting of the EDF headed by Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan. An official announcement said the minister assured that the government would make all-out efforts to increase import of mangoes, which presently stands at only six per cent of total production.

The Gulf and Saudi Arabia are traditional markets for Pakistani mangoes. “Some headway has been made in creating niche for Pakistani mangoes in European countries. This needs to be sustained and expanded,” Mr Khan said, adding that efforts are being made to improve the performance over last year by raising the level of exports from 11,500 to 16,000 tons in the current mango season.

Pakistan is the fifth largest producer and third largest exporter of mango in the world, producing 1,674,000 tons annually and fetching $23 million from exports.