TOWARDS the fag-end of the current mango season, exporters resumed their sales to the European Union and the UK, though the risk of interceptions could not be completely ruled out.

The exporters had voluntarily stopped operations to the EU soon after the UK Customs intercepted two mango consignments of 4,490kg from Pakistan with live fruit fly larvae on July 14 and 15. Another shipment, weighing 5,200kg, was intercepted in similar condition in Holland on June 14. Now if two more similar interceptions take place, Pakistan will face a blanket ban on its mango exports, a fate similar to that of India.

The European Commission, through a notification on March 27 last year, banned imports from India and also alerted Pakistan about such an eventuality if safety measures were not taken to ensure pest-free exports in the future.


Despite the decline in quantity, exporters earned more than double the amount they got in 2013 because of the stringent quality standards applied by the government for exports to the EU in the 2014 season


The exports were resumed after Dr Mubarik Ahmed, Director-General, DPP, said in a statement that as a result of his negotiations with the EU officials the maximum limit of five interceptions for mango or any other agricultural commodity will only be for the remaining part of the current season and the count will start from zero next year and there shall be no ban on export from Pakistan.

The impression given by him was that there is no harm in running the risk of two more interceptions for the current mango season is nearing its end. But India was subjected to a ban without being given any relaxation in conditions.

The resumption of exports was marked with the dispatch of 10 tons consignment to the UK on July 23. Since the ban on India, exporters have been suffering from fears of losing such a big and lucrative market if they happen to be caught off-guard regarding quality of their exports.

The three interceptions show that there has been a failure on the part of both traders and officials in placing quality checks at the basic farm level — the first stage where fruits and vegetables, if contaminated, are detected. Maybe, the exporters preferred checks at later stages.

Last year, the department of plant protection, which is responsible for providing quarantine facilities to fruit and vegetable growers, made hot water treatment compulsory for all exports to the EU. The treatment kills some 9-10 diseases in mangoes, including flies.

As a result, only a few consignments were intercepted in 2014 after an unusually high number of 236 in 2013. Such treatment can reduce the threat of fruit flies but it cannot guarantee complete elimination for it treats symptoms only and not the causes of the contamination.

Farmers need to be trained and warned of the consequences if they do not ensure quality checks. Exporters complain the governments of Punjab and Sindh are doing very little to improve the situation at the farm level. Punjab did take some measures recently but Sindh still lags behind.

Meanwhile, Punjab’s agriculture department has launched an awareness campaign in 10 mango-growing districts of the province to enable growers to adopt safe practices for quality yield. But their lack of awareness of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards continues to hinder market access. The problem is that the country itself has limited SPS management capacity to address food safety and animal and plant health.

The current rains and floods in northern parts of the country have impacted mango crops along with other crops. Some 15pc or around 175,500 ton mango crop is in danger in areas including Multan, Muzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan. The previous four hailstorms in the current season had damaged around 70pc crops in Punjab. As is obvious, the country may miss export target of 100,000 tons due to crop losses.

Till now, the country has exported a total of 3,835.58 tons to the EU while last year the figure was 4,400 tons. Around 90pc of the total exports to the EU go to the UK. The share of the rest of the EU market is about 5pc in total mango exports but it is highly lucrative.

Despite the decline in quantity, exporters earned more than double the amount they fetched in 2013 because of the stringent quality standards applied by the government for exports to the EU in the 2014 season.

An official of the Pakistan Horticulture and Export Development Board says the Sindhri variety, which suffered the most because of non-seasonal rains in its production area in Sindh, has seen its share plummet in exports. These weather conditions had followed severe cold in the areas and weakened the plants.

Thus, the crop suffered double damage; low quality and poor yield. However, prices of Pakistani mangoes improved all over the world due to Ramazan and increased consumption during the holy month. It was not only Sindhri, but white Chounsa as well which suffered because of weather conditions in southern parts of Punjab.

The damage caused by extreme weather could have been contained through liberal application of phosphate and potash fertiliser. Unfortunately, both of these chemicals are expensive. Most farmers cannot afford them. But wherever the farmers applied them, the fruit had recovered both in quality and size.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 3rd, 2015

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