ISLAMABAD, June 20: Pakistan has been able to export only 100,000 tons out of a total 1.5 million tons of mango produced in the country this year owing to technical barriers and high freight charges.

The export of mango could have been much better than the current year’s rate of seven per cent of the total production if the government had taken timely measures for improving the standard packing and subsidising the freight.

An official of the Pakistan Horticulture Export Development Board (PHEDB) said the mango export target this year would be around 115,000 tons, which is an improvement of 10,000 tons over the previous year. However, the crop size has increased to 1.5 million tons this year as against 1.1 million tons in the pervious year.

According to the board, the mango export had started from May 20 under a new set of rules about packaging and weight variations. It was stated to be one of the hindrances in the smooth export of the mango, particularly to European countries.

The mango exports to Europe cost some Rs85 per kg in freight charges alone. An underweight package by half kilogram could save the exporter Rs42 on the freight head per kg.

On the other hand, the airlines have increased freight charges to Rs92 per kg for mango shipments to Europe and US from Rs85 last year. This will increase the cost of export to these two major markets.

“This has encouraged some seasonal exporters to manipulate with weight and bring bad name to the industry and the country,” the report said.

Another big problem emerged when some exporters started exporting the fruit pre-maturely in order to gain early advantage.

For controlling this menace, the report said, the ministry of commerce, on recommendation of the board, had decided to formally fix a starting date for export every year.

Mango, known as king of fruits, has been bringing $20 million in foreign exchange to the country and has the potential to multiply the earnings.

According to the analysts, there was a yawning gap between local demand and supply last year due to less mango production, which resulted in high price of the commodity in the country throughout the season.

The improved production of mango this year would push the exports to new markets. The US and China had already shown willingness to start import of the mango from Pakistan.

The analysts have warned the government to improve the quality of mango otherwise UK might slap a ban on import of mango from Pakistan. The UK authorities have raised the quality issue regarding mango with Pakistani authorities many a times.