The Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) funded project of Fruit Dehydration Unit, Swat is going to be operational soon. The project of the Ministry of Industries and Production is being executed under the supervision of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) will also be responsible for both operation and maintenance.
The objectives of the establishment of a Fruit Dehydration Unit, Swat are to support the fruit growers in product diversification and value addition, introduce modern technology for bulk production of hygienic products and enable the existing marginalized processors to meet the international standards.
The operation of the unit will replace the existing hazardous and obsolete sun drying methods with modern machinery/technology and minimize are the post-harvest losses, which are estimated 35-40% in fresh fruits. The unit will help the growers and processors of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for technology transfer through project replication, increase income of the value chain players and exports of the country and capacity building of fruit growers, traders, project employees and young graduates.
According to the officials of SMEDA, the project will also serve as a common facility centre and demonstration unit for the local growers, processors and exporters, providing dehydrated fruit supported by packaging as per international best practices. The unit is proposed to consist of a fruit dehydration unit with an installed capacity of 175 tons of fruit and vegetable per year along with a washing, slicing, packing and storing capacity. Established on approximately one kanal land, 16 people will be hired directly in the project.
The project will also provide indirect employment to people in farms, transportation, raw material supply, distribution and sales of dehydrated fruits. The global fruit and vegetable processing industry is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 1.3% over the five years and the revenue of the industry is expected to expand at the rate of 3.0% per annum over the five years up to 2020, reaching US$ 315 billion. The dried fruit and vegetable accounts for 10% of worlds exports in the category.
Total fruit production in Pakistan is 7 million tons with an estimated value of about Rs 140 billion, whereas the fruit production in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 0.8 million tons. District Swat has abundant production of fruits i.e. apple 28,660 tons, apricot 20,070 tons, cherry 500 to 1000 tons, citrus 2.660 tons, grapes 85 tons, loquat 240 tons, mulberry 530 tons, peach 25.550 tons, pear 2,425 tons, persimmon 12,560 tons and plum 3,580 tons respectively.
Focusing only upon the apple, apricot, peach, pear persimmon, whose total production is 71,265 tons and at the rate of 40% wastage, around 28,000 tons of these fruits wasted while the remaining 7,127 tons fruits will be available for the dehydration purpose. This situation creates a need to establish a state of the art Fruit Dehydration Unit in the district.
In line with the Pakistan Vision 2025, the project is proposed to promote the development of farming and processing sector, decrease wastage in production, benefiting the people through increased employment and exports.
The project will also increase the share of Pakistan in the export of dried fruit, which is only 80,000 tons against the demand of 0.95 million tons. The world's total export of dried fruits is over one million tons worth US$ 2.5 billion and the position of Pakistan with US$ 80 million accounting for 3.2% share remained at 10th. According to Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), the estimated export quantity of the country for the year 2015 was 120,000 tons.
The exports to the traditional Indian market have remained stable despite issues in trade via the land route, as sellers now cater to their Indian buyers via Dubai. The demand for Pakistani dry fruits has also surged in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and despite competition from Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistani almonds, walnuts, pistachio and raisins have demand in both countries.
Pakistan has also captured part of the global dry fruit markets that were once served by Afghan exporters, who are now either focusing more on their domestic market or at times facing supply shortage or fail to compete with Pakistan in internet marketing.
Comments
Comments are closed.