MULTAN: Mango Growers’ Cooperative Society Limited chairperson Syed Zahid Husain Gardezi says that ban on the use of wooden crates for the export of mango by the Plant Protection and Quality Control Authority (PP and QCA) is in line with the demand of the mango growers to add value and food safety to the exotic fruit.

“This decision is mandated with the restrictions clamped under World Trade Organization regime now enforced in the developed global markets,” he said in a press release issued on Friday.

Mr Gardezi said the use of wooden crates for marketing horticulture produce not only degenerates the quality of mango but also was identified as a permanent source of quarantine pests and insects.

He, however, showed distress in banning wooden crate for export only thereby providing eyewash not only to global connoisseurs as the mango would certainly be carried to export centres in Lahore, Karachi and elsewhere in wooden crates which would be discarded and replaced with fiber board cartons.

He said the mango taken by exporters from growers’ orchards in wooden crates and later discarded before export by them would ultimately tax the growers for its cost.

He suggested the PP and QCA to clamp ban on use of wooden crates altogether even in local market to give an even handed benefit to growers and exporters alike.

He also suggested that till the complete ban of use of wooden crates countries, especially the Middle Eastern triangle which permits export of mango in wooden crates, should continue to lessen the impact on growers.

He urged the Ministry of Food Security and Research to popularise use of contemporary reusable plastic crates in practice in the developing countries to lessen impact of wasted wooden crate on growers.

“Complete ban on wooden crates would also help preventing wastage of valuable timber in the country,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2015

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