ISLAMABAD: China offers a huge market for exports of Pakistan’s dried and dry fruits. Farmers in most mountainous areas of Pakistan produce a variety of fruits, which are dried and exported in large quantities.
An expert from the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC) said, “Large quantities of fruits like apricots, pears, plums are dried and exported every year. Besides, Pakistan also exports great volumes of dry fruits like almonds and walnuts.” He said that quality dried fruits and nuts were mainly produced in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Pakistan exports plenty of dried fruits to different countries, including China,” he said, adding that China was emerging as a lucrative market for Pakistani dried fruits. The agriculture expert said that dried fruits and nuts were selected, graded, processed and packaged keeping in view the international standards.
He said that China imported 2.819 million tonnes of dried and fresh melons and nuts in the first four months of fiscal year 2021-22, which was 12.9% more than the imports done during the same period of the previous year.
Talking about the steps to boost exports of both the dried and dry fruits, he said that the government provided farmers with high-quality seeds to improve production of fruits. He added that such steps helped increase the farmers’ incomes.
It is pertinent to mention here fruit exports increased by 3.39% in volume and 11.19% in value during the financial year 2021-22. Oilseed, nut and kernel exports showed a marvelous increase of 216.33% in quantity and 212.59% in value during FY2021-22.
It is notable here that Pakistan was the 24th largest exporter of dried fruits in the world in 2020 with exports of $16.4 million. In the same year, dried fruits were Pakistan’s 144th most exported product. Among the top destinations for Pakistan’s dried fruit exports were China ($6.8m), Saudi Arabia ($2.97m), the US ($1.24m), the United Arab Emirates ($796,000) and Finland ($490,000). –INP
