Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board (PHDEB) in collaboration with respective provincial governments would set up four Agro-Export Processing Zones (AEPZ) in the country.
"Farm gate value of our agricultural and horticulture production was US $2 billion while at present our total export in this sector stands at US $126 million.
Huge potential exists to enhance export in this sector, which could be the second big foreign exchange earner for Pakistan after textile," said PHDEB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shamoon Sadiq while talking to Business Recorder here Saturday.
Shamoon maintained that since horticulture and agriculture products were perishable items, the same need special treatment and special facilitation to enhance its shelf life and maintain quality in order to fetch handsome price in the export markets.
"PHDEB was working on 14 such projects aimed at enhancing shelf life of fruit, promotion of agro based industries, facilitating farmers in getting handsome price for their products, minimising transportation distance to markets, etc," he added.
According to him, four Agro Export Processing Zones would be established in the country out of which two would be in Punjab; one in NWFP and the fourth one would be set up in Sindh. The Punjab government has already identified a piece of 100-acre land at Saalam where the processing zone would be built at a cost of Rs 250 million. It would not only provide all the infrastructure but technical support to these industries in shape of testing laboratories, weighing bridges, exhibition halls, training centres.
It would be the PHDEB endeavour to direct these industries towards value addition, so as maximum money could be gained on our horticulture products. These 14 projects would be presented before the Export Development Fund (EDF) for getting approval and funds, he disclosed.
Shamoon said that another big project was for setting up four 'Collection Points' with cold storage facilities, two each in NWFP and Balochistan. In NWFP, these would be set up at Malakand and Risalpur, while in Balochistan the sites of Lora Lai and Khuzdar have been identified as suitable venues.
He stated that collection points would play the role of markets where farmers could market their produces and in case they don't get good price, they could store their produces in the attached cold storage. "At present it was a normal practice to dispose of produces at throw away prices in order to save it from wastage.
Moreover, these collection points would also shorten distance to markets from farmlands. This would also facilitate the buyers, who would have an access to all types of produces in one place, as at present they have to visit several markets to buy different produces. Studies in this regard have already been completed and the provincial governments have identified the land while PHDEB would be building infrastructure through EDF," he added.
When asked why Punjab has been ignored for such a collection point, he said that private sector was already setting up such a collection point in Punjab at Renala Khurd. Expenditure on each collection point has been estimated at Rs 40 million plus, he added.
He averred that reactivation of an 'Apple Grading Plant' at Quetta, reactivation of a 'Date Grading Plant' at Turbat and setting up of a 'Date Grading Plant' at Khairpur would also be taken up in the EDF meeting. Another PHDEB's project was dehydration of potatoes and onions, which was aimed at to increase the shelf life of this crop, he said.
According to him, PHDEB has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PIAC to set up an irradiation plant to enhance the shelf life of mangoes. Thirty percent of mangoes go to waste while transporting from Multan to Karachi.
The PHDEB under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) has tried to introduce 'field heat removal technology' under which the fruit is cooled from 48 Celsius degrees to 20 Celsius degrees immediately after plucking from the tree.
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