TOBA TEK SINGH: National productivity organisation (NPO) CEO Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry has invited the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry to present its viable recommendations for new industrial policy.

In a meeting with businessmen at FCCI on Monday, he said NPO would provide printed material in soft form regarding facilities offered by this organisation for dissemination among the industrial community.

He stressed the need for value addition in agriculture products and quoted his recent visit to Thailand which has excelled in dehydration of fruits and vegetables. He said that Thailand is importing frozen strawberries to prepare its chips along with potato chips for export purposes.

He said NPO is organising workshops regarding this facility at provincial level for the information and awareness of the local farmers. He said a workshop can also be arranged in Faisalabad. He said post-harvest losses have been estimated around 35-40 per cent which could be controlled through value addition and developing the processing industry.

He said the value of Rs10 per kg of tomato can be enhanced to Rs 250 through value addition. He also quoted the example of apricot of Hunza which was sold at Rs200 per kg. “Agha Khan Foundation provided them skills to dehydrate it”, he said and added that now they are exporting the dehydrated apricot at Rs2,000 per kg.

He also mentioned the exotic taste of “Chaunsa” mango and said a pilot project for mango pulp was executed in Multan while eight such units are successfully working in this field now.

He said the world demand for mango pulp is 200,000 tonnes per annum and out of it 80pc is being provided by India alone. He said Pakistani mango is far better in quality than the Indian product and it can be used for the manufacturing of many derivatives including jam and squash.

He further said that production of electricity and controlling wastage of electricity are two separate issues and industrialists must avail the facility of NPO to check the wastage of electricity in their respective units.

FCCI Acting President Dr Sajjad Arshad underlined the need for value addition in agricultural products and said that increase in production without value addition may be detrimental to the growers.

He said: “We had a bumper maize crop but its price has come down to the lowest inflicting losses on the farming community. Through value addition we can save farmers from such losses.”

He further said that Pakistan is exporting rice worth $2.5bn which can be increased to $5bn by 2025 and $10bn by 2030. He said the textile exports have been trimmed from 14bn to $11bn while foreign remittances are also in declining mode.

He said: “We failed to adopt new technologies only due to the inconsistency and uncertainty in government policies.”

About poultry, he said the quality of our products is equal to the US only due to the non-interference of the government in this sector. “We should also work on the promotion of the dairy sector which offers multiple avenues of value addition and progress.”

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2024