KARACHI: Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood has said issues relating to the bottlenecks in export of fruit and vegetables will be taken up with the governments of Afghanistan, Indonesia and Iran.

During a meeting held in Islamabad a delegation of Pakistan Fruits and Vegetable Exporters Association, led by Patron-in-Chief Waheed Ahmed, informed the adviser that Kabul had imposed duty on Pakistani kinno.

The quota of Pakistani kinno by Indonesian government will expire on Dec 30 and if it isn’t taken up we will lose the market, Waheed said.

He also informed the adviser that Iranian market can accommodate 60,000-70,000 tonnes of Pakistani kinno, but it’s unfortunate that this lucrative market has been closed for many years due to a ban imposed by Tehran.

Dawood said Pakistan strongly desires to see people of Afghanistan getting economically strong and to achieve that existing procedures to facilitate Pak-Afghan trade was being made simple and feasible. He further shared that duty structure was also being reviewed and simplified simultaneously facilitating Pak-Afghan trade.

He said an Afghan government delegation is also coming to Pakistan on Dec 28 to review bilateral trade.

He assured the delegation for taking up the matter with the Indonesia government to get the quota reissued for 2021.

Dawood said he would also take up the issue of Iranian ban on kinno with the help of Pakistan’s Embassy in Iran.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2020