MULTAN: After over a year of the Covid-19 trauma and an unabated felling of mango trees, nature is finally being kind to growers of the fruit by offering them relief in the form of a good crop of all varieties.

According to mango growers, the crop is in a good condition due to the favourable weather at the time of flowering and fruit setting. On the other hand, the ongoing pandemic, now in its third wave, is hampering the marketing of the fruit owing to the many restrictions.

Although the export of mango will officially commence on or after May 25, a few growers from Sindh have begun harvesting the Malda variety, which has been received in a tasteless condition in the Lahore market due to early harvest.

However, so far, no policy has been announced about airlifting export consignments, as almost 80 per cent of the incoming and outgoing flights have been suspended.

“Sceptical about the outcome of exports, growers have started self-marketing. With an extended interruption due to the pandemic, it is an earnest demand of the mango growers to develop processing zones in mango-producing areas under the [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] to add value to the ‘king of fruit’ and give it an extended shelf life. Marketing in such times requires connectivity for communication between the growers and interested importers through webinars,” said Mango Growers Association President Zahid Hussain Gardezi.

He said there were a number of complications in receiving export orders due to the unnecessary documentation made compulsory by the State Bank of Pakistan for financial transactions, which discouraged the activity.

“There is a need for one-window facilitation for the export of horticulture produce, as the process for a common mango grower to export his product is still not easy,” he stressed.

He further said there were reports regarding the export of Pakistani mangoes to Central Asian nations, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, through the Punjab Investment Board, which is encouraging.

“Things will become clearer as soon as Sindh begins harvesting and exporting, which will establish the rules of business for movement of mangoes under a standard operating procedure,” he added.

Mr Gardezi also said that every year, huge quantities of mangoes were wasted due to fruit fly because of which not only the growers suffered, but the export of mangoes was also affected.

“It is suggested that growers be facilitated against fruit fly by drastically subsidising chemicals effective against it so they can be used from April to September every year in their orchards,” he demanded.

Khwaja Muhammad Shoaib of Farmers Vision Forum said the reports from Sindh regarding mango production were not encouraging. It was being reported that the crop size was 50 to 60 per cent as compared to last year, he added.

“Predicting the size of the crop at the moment is impossible as the windstorm season will continue for a week. This year, the windstorm is late and the first storm of the season came today, which was very intense. So, any prediction will be immature at this moment. The quality and quantity of the crop will be judged on June 1. If there are more windstorms, the loss of fruit will increase, which will result in an increase in the quality of the fruit, as the size of a mango automatically increases when the number of fruits on a tree is less. And if the number of fruits on a tree is large, the size of the fruit will remain small,” he explained.

Mr Shoaib said that reports from exporters were encouraging as they were saying that this year they have received better orders as compared to last year.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2021