Islamabad: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has expressed hope to increase exports to high-end markets, improving revenues for Pakistani mango farmers and exporters by facilitating infrastructure upgrades, introducing new technologies and promoting market opportunities.
While speaking at a Mango Gala organized by stakeholders in order to celebrate this long-term partnership and its many achievements, USAID Pakistan Mission Director Jerry Bisson said that the US Government, through USAID, was proud to partner with the Pakistan mango sector in developing new markets, while ensuring compliance with international grading standards and export protocols. We want to ensure that Pakistani mangoes are competitive on the international market.
As part of the U.S. Government’s efforts to strengthen Pakistan’s agricultural sector, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been working with the Pakistani government and private sector since 2009 to expand the market of Pakistani mangoes globally..
USAID/Pakistan Mission Director Jerry Bisson, Chairman of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Dr. Yusuf Zafar, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Ghazanfar Bilour, and Mango growers from all over the country attended the Gala.
The event brought together stakeholders from the public and private sectors to investigate trends and opportunities, recognize local farmers’ innovations in, and reaffirm USAID’s commitment towards uplifting Pakistan’s mango sector.
USAID launched the U.S.-Pakistan Partnership for Agricultural Market Development in February 2015 to improve the marketing capacity of four Pakistani value chains; meat, high value and off-season vegetables, mangoes, and citrus.
Since 2009, USAID has supported mango farmers in upgrading fruit processing technologies and addressing export protocols more efficiently. Under the project’s grant program, USAID has provided 13 state-of-the-art mango graders.
These graders became operational in 2017 and will be utilized during the 2018 production season to grade export quality mangoes.
Source: Muhammad Arshad; Pak Observer