Pakistan as sweet as mango
By
Qudrat Ullah
Mango
is the most delicious fruit of summer season which is liked
by all. It is the second major fruit-crop of Pakistan with
high international value.
It is more popularly called “the king of all fruits”
because of its delicious taste, fragrance and high dietetic
value.The insatiable temptation for Pakis- tani mango lovers
is its peculiar aroma and rich sweetness which is found
nowhere else in the world. Pakistan ranks fifth in the mango
producing countries of the world.
Punjab and Sindh provinces are the main producers of this
fruit and share of the two provinces in mango production is
79 percent and 20 percent, respectively. Punjab holds about
67percent of the total mango sowing area and produces 80
percent of country’s total mango-crop.
The good thing about
Pakistani mango is that it offers more than 150 varieties of
high quality mangoes including Sindhri, Anwar Ratoul,
Langra, Dusehri etc., but the most popular variety is Sammar
Bahisht, … ‘The Heavenly Fruit’ … which is commonly called
Chaunsa.
The ripening season of Chaunsa lasts from July till late
August. The season of Pakistani mangoes usually begins in
the month of May and lasts till September. But, since it’s
hard to stay away from the sweetness of mangoes, so the
diehard mango fans prefer freezing its pulp to enjoy the
heavenly taste even after the season is over.
During the year 2010-11,
mangoes were grown over an area of 0.17 million hectares,
yielding a total production of 1.888 million tons. The total
production of mangoes in Punjab province, during 2011-12,
was recorded as 1.304 million tons, which makes it the
biggest mango grower in the country.
Pakistan annually exports
about 0.13 million tons of high-quality aromatic mango,
valuing around 6.5 million dollars, mainly to Middle East
and the U.K markets. Efforts are underway to enhance the
mango export-web by including South and South East Asian
regions in addition to China, USA and central European
countries.
In Pakistan, less than five
percent of the total crop is used for processing as mango
pulp. Currently, 19 mango farms in Punjab are Global Gap
Certified (GGC) and therefore, they can sell their products
to food safety conscious food-chains and high-end markets of
the world.
The number of such farms is
increasing as more and more growers are now complying with
the quality standards in cultivating, harvesting and
marketing practices so that they could earn high-price of
their crop.
It may be added here that
Punjab is playing a leading role in the national economy in
more than one ways. It has about 29 percent of the total
reported, 57percent of the total cultivated and 69 percent
of the total cropped area of Pakistan.
It contributes a major share
in the agricultural economy of the country by providing
about 83 percent of cotton, 80 percent of wheat, 97 percent
of fine aromatic rice, 63 percent of sugarcane and 51
percent of maize to the national food production. Among
fruits, mango accounts for 66 percent; citrus more than
95percent, guava 82 percent and dates 34 percent of total
national production of these fruits.
It’s heartening to note that
the agriculture production from Punjab has started to
correspond to international quality standards through
Global-GAP and IFS Certificates. It’s important to note that
Punjab, today, has B2C traceability for not one or two but
for the whole 20 products, which no other country has been
able to achieve. Mango is just one of the fine assets of
Pakistan.
It has almost everything
needed for development and prosperity; what we really need
is the continuity of policies and a good, efficient and
expeditious government system- also having sense of
direction, to draft necessary policies to benefit from the
natural opportunities like this.
Despite huge financial and
human setbacks in global war on terror, the good thing is
that Pakistan’s economy has shown great resilience in the
face of the devastating earthquake, global recession, the
Taliban imbroglio; and future growth prospects for the
economy are good if elections are held well in time. To
sustain rapid growth over an extended period of time, we
need to further increase the quantity and quality of
investments.
For this to happen, Pakistan
has to sustain reforms to reduce the cost of doing business
and encourage productivity of labor and innovation for
investment in public infrastructure, education and
healthcare systems. It should also address the growing
macroeconomic imbalances, especially with regard to the
current account.
February, 2013
Source:
The Frontier Post