LAHORE (January 30 2004): The President of Sargodha Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Aslam Anjum has demanded the government for setting up a high-tech based research institute at Sargodha in order to turn the citrus fruits into an exportable product.

He was addressing to the participants of a training programme organised by the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) on "Kinnow export and post harvest handling". According to a press release issued here on Thursday.

Abdul Rahim Khan, a Horticulture Expert from Ayub Agriculture Research Institute and Tahir Ali, a researcher from University of Karachi gave presentations on post harvest handling and the export marketing of Kinnows respectively.

Elaborating his proposal regarding research institute, Anjum was confident that the proposed institute would be able to devise practical measures to overcome the losses of over Rs two billion occurring in the horticulture sector due to lack of proper system of post harvesting, transport and storage of the citrus fruits like Kinnow.

He was confident that the proposed institute would promote an export culture in Sargodha by introducing modern techniques of packaging, grading, transporting and preserving Kinnows as per standard of the export market.

He disclosed that Central Board of Revenue (CBR), on the request of SCCI, had made formal approval for setting up a seasonal dry port near Sargodha.

Alamgir Chaudhry, Head Management Development Group, apprised the participants about Smeda's services. He assured to continue the series of training programmes for SMEs engaged in the agri-business.

Courtesy Business Recorder