PAKISTAN’S efforts to export mango to high-end markets seem to have gone sour. For the last three years, it has not been able to send fruit to America despite putting up Rs200 million irradiation US-specific plant.

For Japan, it has not been able to construct vapour heat treatment plant for commercial operations. For countries like Australia and France, where it can try with existing sanitation facilities, it is simply not trying hard enough.

Since the world moved to more strict sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements for fruit trade, Pakistani mango has consistently been losing international buyers. Till a decade ago, more than 65 countries were importing mango from Pakistan. The current list is half of it, and shrinking — with the Middle East being the major buyer. Price there is low, and so is the income from these exports.

There is a long list of well known problems with mango exports. No one, however, seems interested in dealing with them. The farmers now know that they have to sanitise their farms to meet the international standards and they also need to have certifications (because of traceability issues) if they want to sell their produce to exporters.

The exporters, on their part, precisely know the kind of treatment that the importing countries want before letting any fruit in. The government knows exactly the kind of infrastructure it has to build to create an enabling environment for export. Even so, there is hardly any progress on this front.

The efforts remain occasional, whimsical and open to mid-stream change of mind. One example is the Paras Food Company — the unit government created to run the much-trumpeted irradiation plant near Lahore. The plant, planning which started in 2004, finally became operational in 2009. Before and during its test-run, everyone was told that this plant would help meet the America-specific mango treatment requirements. Three years down the line, as Pakistan formally begins it mango export season from May 25, exports to the US remains negligible.

All exports, albeit being in a meagre quantity, are being treated in the US when they arrive there, and not at the Paras Food when they leave Pakistan. The treatment in the US is too costly to keep the fruit competitive there. The hype created around the plant was so high that the government immediately announced putting up two more plants once the first was up and running.

But operation of the first one is now falling apart, at least if mango exports to US was a benchmark. The Americans raised questions about the plant’s capability and operations, and are not ready to accept it as it is. It is at least understandable, given their sensitivities to hygiene and pests. But why has the Pakistan Plant Protection Department not registered the plant so far? It is hard to understand and explain. Some eight years of high hopes, five years of planning, three years of operation and Rs200 million project, the plant still does not merit even national registration.

Changing the pattern of plant operation mid-stream has been another problem, with huge ramifications. According to the original plan, the plant was to be built and operated under the supervision of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and marketing component was to be looked after by another public sector company — Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company (PHDEC).

Once the plant became operational, the marketing part was outsourced to private sector. It is not to oppose the induction of the private sector, but only to underline the whimsical nature of decision-making when it comes to execution of plans of national importance. Thus a new hybrid emerged that is yet to yield results. With marketing (read plant’s income) going to the private sector, the research and development (R&D) component went almost missing.

Secondly, the plant was expected to finance its own running from the word go. With cash-starved PHDEC out of operation,(the plant does have finances of its own) and the private sector partner holding back its investment, the entire financial burden has fallen on the Atomic Energy Commission. It is now pumping in its own money though at much lesser speed than required. With the commission being only source of finances, it may soon end up owning the plant.

Since the plant can irradiate many other fruits and vegetables, mango seems to have dropped below the priority list of the profit-seeking marketing company. The failure to sell mango to US is thus only pushing the fruit further down on the list of private sector exports.

Finally, the project was supposed to be a model for the private sector. The government had thought that the private sector would invest in such areas once the plant becomes profitably operational according to its original planning. With the plant failing to take off commercially, it would only foreclose the chances of investment in the sector.

The government does not have fiscal resources to keep on experimenting with such flawed plans. It is its duty to avoid wasting tax payers’ money on unviable projects.