PAKISTAN has achieved some success in increasing apple production and per-hectare yield. This is keeping local markets well-supplied with the fruit. But export potentials are yet to be exploited fully.

The production of apples rose gradually from 441,062 tonnes in FY09 to 556,307 tonnes in FY13, according to the stats released recently by Ministry of National Food Security and Research. While the area under cultivation was reduced from 113,029 hectares in FY09 to 103,830 hectares in FY13, the per-hectare yield has improved (see table).

Exports of apples, however, have been on the decline falling from about 2,300 tonnes in FY09 to a little less than 1,300 tonnes in FY13, according to stats obtained from Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. Export earnings, too, have declined from $854,000 to just $564,000 during these five years.

Apple production in KP and Punjab dropped between 2008 and 2013 for a host of reasons including high cost of production and farmers’ decision to switch over to growing other fruits

“In FY00, our apple exports totalled 4,000 tonnes,” recalls a Karachi-based exporter quoting figures compiled by Fruit Exporters Association. “But by mid-2000s exporters began to focus more on mango and kinnow with their far bigger exportable surplus than apple, and ready export markets.”

He says the government apparently ignores issues in apple exports because of their low volumes and exporters seem content with whatever they’re earning.

Slightly over 80pc of the country’s total apple production comes from Balochistan and apple orchards there have recorded higher per-hectare yield for the last five years. That’s why in FY13 461,279 tonnes of apples were obtained from that province, up markedly from 306,534 tonnes in FY09 even though the area under cultivation, during this period declined to 95,482 hectares from 102,951 hectares.

Sources in agriculture department of Balochistan say provincial output of apples in FY14 is estimated to have risen to 0.5m tonnes adding that final figures have yet to be finalised.

Production of famous varieties of apples i.e. Shin Kulu (golden delicious) Tar Kulu (red delicious) and Amri has seen consistent increase over the years, fruit farmers say, adding that golden apples are high in demand both in local and export markets. “For last few years, it’s the golden apple that has been exported consistently to the Middle East but red apple faces stiff competition there from New Zealand and Amri has never been a favourite in export markets anyway,” says a Karachi-based exporter.

By the way, red apple from New Zealand now claim a tiny share of even our own market and are easily available at roadside fruit stalls in Karachi normally a few weeks before the arrival of local red apple.

Apple production in KP and Punjab have, between 2008 and 2013, reduced for a host of reasons including high cost of production and fruit farmers’ decision to switch over to growing other fruits. But, in Punjab, chances for increasing apple production are high because of some key research experiments carried out back in 2009-10 have set the stage for obtaining higher per-hectare output.

During that year, horticultural researchers of Faisalabad had established through a pilot project, in Murree, how dark red-maroon apple of maximum fruit weight could be grown in the upland of Punjab.

Apple growers say that experiments were carried out on more than a dozen apple varieties and at least three types of apples, including dark-maroon apple, had shown weight gain in response to certain techniques adopted in fruit farming.

Production in the Northern areas also got a setback during the period under review primarily because of the rise in militancy there. Officials say from 2014, production there has started improving but that would hardly make any impact on the country’s total output of apple because fruit farmers of Northern areas can produce no more than a few thousand tonnes.

Unlike mangoes that are picked before ripening and artificially ripened, apples are plucked from trees mostly when they have ripened. This adds to the cost of orchard maintenance and also allows limited time to fruit farmers to transport apples to nearby markets which, again, increases the cost of the fruits.

Besides, since production has been on the rise, selling apples at prices that cover all costs and still leaves enough profit for growers is becoming increasingly difficult, fruit farmers say. They insist that the increase in demand has not been adequate enough to match rise in production.

But it is difficult to verify this claim in the absence of stats on demand pattern of fruits in the country.

Fruit farmers and traders say illegal supplies of Afghan and Iranian apples to Quetta had been a big negative for them. But in recent years, this challenge has somewhat subsided creating more space for them to augment their own facilities for grading and packaging of domestically produced apples.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play