HYDERABAD: Back-to-back interceptions of fruit fly-infested mango consignments which originated from Sindh have worried mango producers of the province, for they have gone the extra mile to improve their farm management practices.

Sindh’s mango orchard owners have worked hard with their Australian counterparts and the management of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in last four years to ensure that they get best of mangoes for export to European and other markets.

Two mango shipments were intercepted in London for being infested with fruit fly, forcing the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) to withdraw ‘green channel’ facility for farmers and exporters to send the fruit to Europe without hot water treatment (HWT), under which mangoes are dipped in hot water at 48 degrees Celsius for one hour to counter fruit fly problem.

It is now mandatory for every exporter and farmer to have their mangoes processed under hot water treatment. A common HWT facility of Pakistan Horticulture Development Board (PHDB) is available in Karachi where 500 tonnes of mangoes could be processed in an hour.

Sindh’s agriculture department is concerned over fruit fly issue, which hits guava and jujube production as well. A senior provincial agriculture official told Dawn on Thursday that the department has proposed a Rs300-million scheme for Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Umerkot, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari and Mirpurkhas districts, under which a campaign would be launched to take farmers on board to tackle fruit fly infestation.

The scheme, yet to be approved, was proposed to Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah after a letter by federal ministry of national food security and research, requiring provincial governments to take some initiatives.

Some progressive mango growers of Sindh worked with Australian experts under Agriculture Sector Linkage Programme (ASLP) to learn more from their experience and replicate them at their farms.

They have formed an association, called ‘Sindh Mango Growers’, and one of them even handled some private consignments by processing them at his farm for export to Manchester and Frankfurt. These air shipments landed successfully there.

These growers have so far sent 16 shipments by air to European markets and around 140 tonnes of mangoes are being sent through sea after hot water treatment.

“We are really worried about reported interceptions and concerned about it,” said one of the growers. He added that Sindh has rich potential in terms of trade of mangoes either by sea or air as its ‘Sindhri’ variety is quite famous.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2014