The Agro Food Processing Facilities (AFP) Multan set up to exploit the existing potential of mango pulp production in the southern region, has produced encouraging results. Sindh government has also shown interest to replicate the project in its province.
The Chief Minister Sindh Advisor Imam-ud-Din Shokeen, who is also Minister for Mines and Mineral, has already visited the AFP Multan to have first hand-information about the functioning of the plant. The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) Provincial Chief Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhary told Business Recorder that the AFP Multan was jointly initiated by SMEDA, and Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC).
He said that India is a major producer of mangoes in the world, followed by China, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan and others. These top six countries produce 77 percent of the total world output of mangoes while other countries including Philippines, Nigeria, Brazil, Egypt, Haiti, Congo, Madagascar, Sudan, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Vietnam, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Sri Lanka are also known for mango production. Despite being the top 6th producer of mangoes, Pakistan's contribution to the world production is quite meagre and needs more improvement.
India produces 160,000 tons of mango pulp and thus has 80 percent share in the world market while Pakistan, despite huge potential contributes insignificant quantity of 2000 tons. Keeping in view the importance of the project, the Punjab government had provided land and construction cost of Rs 114 million for the project and the Government of Pakistan provided Rs 207 million on account of three-year operational cost including the staff salaries while an amount of Rs 100 million was spent on machinery, he said.
SMEDA procured fruit processing machinery, office equipment, furniture, vehicles, hiring of human resources, and provision of necessary funds to meet operational expenses while PSIC provided four-acre of land, completion of civil work of the building including utilities connection and procurement and installation of prefabricated cold storage.
The project objective was to support the fruit and vegetable growers in processing and value addition of their products, introduce the latest fruit and vegetable processing facilitates that would help the growers to increase their income and exports of the country, and to help the local growers to go for technology transfer, he added.
Alamgir Chaudhary said that Pakistan has a total fruit and vegetable production of 6.011 million tons and 5.719 million tons respectively. About 30 percent of the fruits and vegetable production is wasted due to negligence and lacking processing facilities and better post-harvest management, he said. The introduction of agro food based common facility centre helps minimise the post harvest losses and can increase the growers' income besides enhancing country's exports, he added.
The plant has facilities of manufacturing of pulp and processing of mango, guava, apple, strawberry, tomato paste/puree, carrot pulp, fresh fruit and vegetable grading, washing and packing besides consultancy on latest manufacturing and processing technique information on latest technology. The plant has capacity of processing 10 tons mango per hour and 5 tons per hour of guava, apple, strawberry, and tomato. The plant, after mango season, can also be used for the processing and manufacturing of apple pulp to facilitate the growers in Balochistan, he added.
He said that citrus has been relocating in Multan region after couple of decades for the last three-four years and the area under cultivation of citrus is being increased by 5-10 percent every year. It is pertinent to mention that Southern region was known for production of citrus besides mango and that was why the Citrus Research Institute was established in Sahiwal about 40-years ago. The persistent increase in citrus export to Russia and Central Asian states where it is used in manufacturing of alcohol, has attracted the local grower who have now started growing citrus including kinow.
The area under cultivation of citrus has been increased to 14,826 acres in Multan district, 20,300 acres in Sahiwal, 16,000 acres in Khanewal district and 17300 acres in Vehari district. The AFP Multan that was established after consulting the stakeholders, would be equally useful for the processing, vaccination, grading and packaging of the citrus which would play significant role in enhancing the country's exports, Alamghir Chaudhary said.