The president of Pakistan Mango Growers Association (MGA), Zahid Hussain Gardezi, has said that "we are expecting better mango crop during this season, and it might be 30 to 40 percent more than preceding years".
Talking to newsmen here on Wednesday, he said that a consignment of more than 30 tonnes mangoes had left for Europe, marking the beginning of this fruit's exports this year. However, traders expect the export of mango to stay lower than last year, in terms of quantity, but might attract higher price.
He said that the shipment had left the country late on Monday for one of the European countries with mainly Sabz Sindhri in the consignment--the variety much in demand across the world. "As official figures suggest, last year we exported 87,000 tonnes mangoes," said Zahid, who is also an exporter.
"Though this year we see the quantity going up, the value of exported mangoes is expected to be higher due to better price offers than last year." He said that with the beginning of regular shipments, exporters were receiving inquires from different countries. He said that European states were expected to be top importers of Pakistani mangoes.
"Average export price last year was estimated at 37 cents per kg. This year, it is likely to be higher, but it is too early to reach any conclusion," he said. Being the sixth largest producer of mango, Punjab offers best varieties of this fruit, which are well in demand, mainly in Europe, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Sindh has recently faced bad weather and was striving to get rid of a disease, which has damaged the standing crop to some extent. However, exporters do not see any significant impact of such negative development.
"When there is decline in production in some areas of Sindh, there is a substantial increase in other areas of both provinces," Zahid said, and added: "There will be no such impact on quantity or total size of the crop by season's end. We eye even better exports this year with good price offers."
He, however, said that the situation could delay arrival of the crop in some areas of the two provinces, which could create demand/supply gap, but it did not appear so much threatening to exports.
"There are hopes of some new market opening this season, but Europe remains the best destination of Pakistani mangoes, as the continent offers best price than any other part of the world," said Gardezi. "There were also unofficial exports to Iran and Afghanistan last year, which put the total exports at more than 100,000 tonnes against the official figure of 87,000 tonnes," he added.