THE bad news is that the Europeans have intercepted a consignment of Pakistani mangoes that carried a banned pest — fruit fly — and have sent it back to Pakistan. Worse still, if rumors are to be believed, five more consignments have already checked positive for the same pest, and more complaints may be on their way.

Scared of a potential blanket ban and its disastrous consequences, the authorities have moved quickly by banning export of the fruit to Europe without post-harvest, hot water treatment. They have also restricted shipments to Karachi only — where these treatments plants are located — and to a few credible orchards. The department of plant protection has issued notifications to this effect, and is refining them to prevent any repeat of the incident.

However, despite these late official efforts, exports have taken a plunge. By last week, the country had only exported around 2,000 tonnes of fruits, against 24,000 tonnes by the same time last year. With the Europeans blowing the whistle, other countries, even those with relatively lax quarantine requirements, have become careful, giving hard time and lower prices to exporters.

The exporters fear Pakistan may lose up to 60pc of its volumetric foreign sales this year. In monitory terms, the loss may be even higher, as Europe, being a high-end market, offers the highest prices.

Foreign sales of mango have been stuck at less than 150,000 tonnes over the last decade or so, despite the opening up of eight new export markets during this period

While the catching of consignment itself leaves behind some questions, unfortunately, the incident points to either weaknesses in the monitoring system, or corruption. For instance, why was a consignment that originated from rural Sindh (Tando Allah Yar), came all the way up to Lahore and was loaded from there? Was it only a misuse of coding, i.e. a non-registered orchard used the code of a registered one? Or were some palms greased to hoodwink the system?

Apart from raising barriers to avoid a repeat of such an incident, an investigation is needed.

Some exporters believe this was bound to happen, given the disappointing level of domestic production and export planning. The production process lacks quality, at least according to international standards, and this has led to stagnation in the fruit’s exports over the years. Foreign sales of mango have been stuck at less than 150,000 tonnes for the last decade or so, despite the opening up of eight new markets around the world during the same period.

Exports are only 10-15pc of the total domestic production. Mango is essentially a domestic fruit, and unless some sanity prevails in production line and the domestic market, exports may not pick up.

The Federal Ministry for Food Security and Research panicked when the European case was reported, and took precautionary measures that may further hurt exports. It has asked all consignments to be treated with hot water before they are sent to Europe. All three treatment plants, with far less capacity than required, are concentrated in Karachi. That means mangoes from upcountry might have already consumed half of their shelf-life before they reach the plant. The ministry’s decision to avoid a ban because of it consequences for other exports as well makes sense. But, at what cost?

Some kind of zoning is needed to deal with the long list of pests. Allowing exports without cleaning the production lines, is a recipe for disaster. This is why exports were restricted to certified orchards. But these orchards have to be strictly monitored and their surroundings cleared of host plants that feed pests. No orchard manager can deal with the fruit fly if surrounded by fodder and guava plants. These kinds of measures are necessary.

While Pakistan cannot clean all its orchards in one go, it certainly create some islands and then start expanding them. But expansion should not be at the cost of ignoring the already certified orchards, as seems to be the case.

The regulatory regime also needs a fresh look. The plant protection department — which monitors all exports — has been running on an ad-hoc basis. With no policies for production line, and with treatment facilities restricted to one city and the system open to cheating, chances of future interceptions and punitive measures by foreign countries will always be high.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, July 7th, 2014