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| July 01, 2006 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 4, 1427 |
Production of quality mangoes stressed
ISLAMABAD, June 30: President of Zarai Taraqiati Bank (ZTBL) R.A. Chughtai on Friday stressed the need for producing high quality mangoes to compete in the world market, keeping in view the demand and consumers’ preferences and make transportation efficient and cheap.
He said this while inaugurating a three-day 15th National Mango and Summer Fruit Exposition-2006 here.
The exposition has been organized by the Horticulture Foundation of Pakistan (HFP) in collaboration with ZTBL to showcase varieties of mangoes and other fruits and their by- products produced in the country.
Dr Saeed Ahmed, president of HFP, and Syed Mehfooz Ali Shah a former agriculture scientist also spoke on the occasion.
The ZTBL president said Pakistan’s climate is best suited for production of wide range of fruits and vegetables.
“The country is producing best varieties of fruits and vegetables in the world with enormous potential to expand production and earn foreign exchange by exporting surplus produce”, he remarked.
Mr Chughtai said the expositions like this of the Horticultural Foundation Pakistan provides an excellent opportunity to the growers and other technical experts to judge the improvement and progress made in the production, processing and marketing of fruits.
He hoped that the Foundation would continue to encourage the growers and exporters of fruit and vegetable by holding such exhibitions in various parts of the country.
According to 2003-04 statistics an area of 735,000 hectares is under fruit cultivation in the country. Similarly, he said total fruit production was 5,712,000 tons.
Among the major fruits, he said mango occupied the second position after citrus in terms of area and production.
He added that citrus was under cultivation on 1,88,000 hectares while mangoes were under cultivation on 1,52,000 hectares. The area and production of mango has increased significantly after the year 1998-99.
The data indicates that the area under mango cultivation has increased from 94,000 to 152,000 hectares from 1998-99 to 2004- 05. The production, he said, has also increased from 917,000 tons to 1,674,000 tons during the same period.
Pakistan, he said, is the 5th largest mango producer and 3rd largest exporter of the world.
Mr Chaughtai said Pakistan possessed large number of well established mango orchards in Sindh and southern Punjab.
The quality of mango grown in Pakistan is superior and the demand for the quality produce is increasing within the country and abroad.
He added that in Pakistan room for improvement in packaging and streamlining marketing existed. He added that finances were available for farm transportation with ZTBL.—APP
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