Pakistan Horticulture Foundation (PHF) is organising a three-day national conference on Tuesday to streamline how to improve production of bananas and their export quality to capture international market share as much as possible.
The President of the Foundation, Saeed Ahmad, who is expected to present his detailed research paper in the inaugural session, spoke to the Business Recorder about the conference. He said basurai variety of bananas is grown in many places in Pakistan, but its commercial hinterland is in Sindh province, where it is grown about 30,000 acres of land, adding that the country produces bananas worth of one billion rupees.
Expressing his grave concern over the export of the commodity he said that the fruit is not exported officially, though, small quantities of bananas are exported in Afghanistan, UAE and some Middle-East countries.
Saeed said Pakistan could enhance export of bananas by $10 million if it introduces Australian and Latin American varieties in the country. However, he said that Baunchytype virus disease has affected the crop of bananas, which needs extensive treatment to get rid of the disease, in addition to good usage of water as well as beneficial fertiliser and pesticides.
At a later stage, banana export would need careful cleaning, packaging and quality control treatment, effective transportation, and distribution through carefully planned outlets.