ISLAMABAD: Indonesian Amb­as­sador Iwan Suyudhie Amri on Thursday said that last year his country imported kinno worth over $22 million which was almost half of Pakistan’s total exports of the fruit and hoped that this volume will increase further this year.

At the Kinno Expo held on Thursday, organised by the government in collaboration with USAID’s US-Pakistan Partner­ship for Agricultural Market Development, Mr Amri said that the Indonesian government has revised its calendar of import quotas, allowing Pakistani exporters to send produce throughout the citrus growing season – from January to April.

Previously, Indonesia only allowed the import of citrus from Pakistan during January and February only. The envoy added that an Indonesian delegation will visit Pakistan during the second week of next month for talks on the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for National Food Security and Research, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan said Pakistan has witnessed a visible shift towards high-value agriculture and horticulture, and citrus fruits, particularly kinno.

US Ambassador David Hale termed the exhibition another milestone in the long partnership between America and Pakistan. “The kinno citrus is a symbol of our shared pursuit of development and innovation, and demonstrates the long-term vision of our collaboration,” he said.

Pakistani kinno goes global : Following Indonesia, Russia is the second largest importer of Pakistani kinno.

Twenty export destinations across the world are enjoying Pakistani kinno including Ukraine, Iran, UAE, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Afghanistan.

Pakistan is the sixth largest producer of kinno mandarin in the world, with 193,000 hectares under cultivation with an average production of 1800,000 tonnes.

Within the kinno growing areas of the Punjab around Sargodha, Mandi Bahauddin and Toba Tek Singh, 37 processing facilities with international certifications have been developed.

The US-Pakistan Partnership for Developing Agriculture was launched in 2015 to improve commercial agriculture and livestock sectors to compete in international and national markets in four target products lines: meat, high-value and off-season vegetables, mangoes and citrus.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2017