LAHORE, April 16: Farmers and horticulture traders on Sunday warned the government against a possible crisis of packaging material and urged the officials concerned to find a solution to it before it spins out of hand.

With trade liberalisation in the local market, they claimed, people were becoming more quality conscious and value-addition had become a trade necessity.

They said packaging was parent industry for all trades but the material was fast turning scarce. “This shortage may end up hurting the horticulture industry if urgent corrective steps are not taken,” they added.

Tayyab Ijaz Qureshi, a leading exporter in city, said four kinds of packaging material were normally used in Pakistan and all of these were becoming increasingly short, causing massive post-harvest losses. For example, the conventional methods of packaging involved jute bags and wooden crates and both were getting scarce because of decreasing forest ratio.

The recent earthquake had further damaged forests and people in those areas were using woods for reconstruction of houses and keeping themselves warm.

Owing to these factors, he said, the cost of a wooden crate had jumped from Rs12 to Rs30 within the last one year. As the mango season was approaching, the crates would be in short supply and costly. The two could be treated up to international standards and fell in the category of an “unhealthy packaging” in addition to causing some 15 to 20 per cent post-harvest losses, he said.

Their appearance also was not aesthetically attractive enough to bring good price in the market, he added.

Hamid Malhi, a member of the Farmers Associate Pakistan, said only corrugated cartons were internationally accepted and had reasonable aesthetic value as also they were hygienic and easy to handle. They could be recycled and were environment-friendly and reduced the post-harvest losses to five per cent. These positives made them a dire necessity of domestic and local market for all horticulture products and that was where the government needed to concentrate, he demanded.