'Mango farmers must adopt post-harvest tech to avoid waste'

Mango growers must adopt the use of post-harvest technology in the absence of which 25 to 30 percent of the precious produce goes waste annually. Special Secretary Agri-marketing Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Azhar said here while addressing a seminar on improving mango trade.
He regretted that a loss of about 1 billion rupees is caused annually due to lack of application of post-harvest technology. However, he said with the objective to achieve superior quality mango in highest quantity, fruit and vegetable development project was launched in RY Khan and Multan, which has set a target of 500 million dollars export by the year 2012. He said a machine to grade mangoes is being installed in RYK and Multan in order to facilitate growers and exporters.
Current fruit and vegetable exports touch 170 million dollars and steps are being taken to improve this trade, he observed.
The seminar was also addressed by Director Agri-marketing Punjab Ashfaque Hussain, field officer horticulture export board M Asif Qureshi, exporters and other concerned officials.