KARACHI – Pakistan is going to ask Japan for facilitating the Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) plant, the phyto-sanitary requirement of mango, at Tokyo’s port, as Islamabad lacks the facility to start mango export during next season. Without the VHT facility, Pakistan,
while ensuring the quarantine requirements for packing place in order to prevent invasion by the group of oriental fruit fly species, would not be able to export mango to Japan.
Japan, which has conditionally allowed the import of Pakistani mango, would be asked to facilitate the facility at its port as the same facility was not available while the import of the same plant from Tokyo could take further time.
Talking to Pakistan Today Chief Executive (CE) Pakistan Horticultural Export & Development Company (PHEDC) Shahid Hussain, said that as the foreign country has already rejected the VHT tested mango import from India for not meeting its demand, the best way to start the export of fruit to Tokyo early was to get the facility on Japan’s soil.
Though, under the signed agreement between the two countries, the required plant would be imported from Japan, the export in absence of the demanded facility is not possible in near future.
In order to star export, the other proposal the government may forward to Japan was to get clearance of a private laboratory in Karachi from Japan, from where five to ten thousand kilograms of mango could be exported to at least enter the foreign market, he said.
The said proposals, he said, would be shared with the Japanese government by the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MINFA) soon. He said for the international trade of fruit, mainly mango, Kinnow etc, the disinfestations facilities and a quarantine requirement of an importing country should be duly certified. According to sources the final notification of the import of mango from Pakistan would be made public by the foreign country by mid January 2011.
However, according to sources, mango was unlikely to be exported to Japan during next season and the concerned authorities had done nothing to tap the huge market of Tokyo.
Earlier a Japanese agriculturists’ delegation belonging to a renowned agriculture cooperative organization (JA) had assured the concerned authorities in Islamabad that the best quality of Pakistani mangoes would reach Japanese markets from the next season.
The understanding made by the two countries, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan was to inspect and to test the machine before allowing the import of mango. The quarantine officials would also thoroughly investigate and inspect the plant facility and the machine performance besides conducting an inspection on building facility, process flow of operation and the packing facility.
Upon submission of the results of the inspection, the Japanese quarantine officer would reply to the exporter whether or not the VHT facility was an appropriate plant quarantine facility for the proper VHT and packing of mangoes for export to Japan.
It is worth mentioning here that the main markets for the mango export were Dubai Europe, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman and Kuwait, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Russia and Poland. Last year, around 150,000 tonnes of mango worth $ 40 million was exported to various countries.
