MULTAN, July 1: The federal ministry of commerce will send delegations to several countries in July to explore markets there for mango export.

Export Promotion Bureau’s regional director Haider Raza told Dawn on Monday that the targeted countries this year were Italy, Norway, Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Kazakhstan.

He said details of the visits of most of the countries had been finalized except the Netherlands as its embassy in Pakistan had closed its operation owing to the geo-political situation of the area.

Mr Raza said the Pakistani embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan, was planning to organize a mango party with the first lady of the state as its chief guest. Similarly, a famous super store’s chain, Gallery Lefaye, of Portugal had agreed to hold exhibitions of Pakistani mangoes.

He said objective of all these efforts was to boost exports of the Pakistani mango.

He said EPB was planning to organize an international mango show at Multan in collaboration with the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in July. But the show had to be cancelled on the reports of Pakistani missions abroad that international buyers were unlikely to visit Pakistan in the prevailing geo-political situation.

Mr Raza said therefore the plan to send delegations abroad was floated and in order to maintain transparency in the selection of delegation members EPB invited applications through print media from the interested growers and exporters.

He said 70 per cent of the quota was given to the central EPB office in Karachi while rest of the portion was equally distributed between Multan and Mirpur Khas regional offices.