A seven-member delegation comprising senior officials of Ministries of Commerce and Agriculture and citrus exporters will visit Australia from May 9 to 19 under the Agriculture Sector Linkage Programme (ASLP).
"The delegation will discuss ways to increase citrus production in Pakistan with Australian technical assistance," chief executive officer Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Board (PHDEB), Shamoon Sadiq told APP.
The Australian $6.6 million Agriculture Sector Linkage Programme has been developed to deal with areas like market linkages, academic linkages, agriculture and linkages programme review. He said ASLP would ultimately help inject additional knowledge, training and resources into the horticulture and dairy sectors of Pakistan.
On citrus exports this year, he said that Pakistan had so far exported over 150,000 tonnes of kinnow during the current season, and that consignments were still being sent abroad.
"Despite problems, Pakistan has been able to accomplish the feat of exporting to Indonesia, and if Jakarta cuts down duty on Pakistan kinnow, there may be substantial increase in the citrus exports," he added. He said Russia, Dubai and Iran were the biggest buyers of Pakistan's citrus fruit this year.
"Insha-Allah, China will emerge as another big importer of Pakistani citrus next year," Shamoon Sadiq said.
Regarding mango, he said the PHDEB was endeavouring to induct technology to increase the shelf-life of this important horticulture crop.