Production and quality of Pakistan’'s citrus and mango crops will be given a welcome boost following a new agreement between two organizations on a mission to increase export-ready fruit and vegetables.

The All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) has partnered with global organization, the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI).

The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently to help shape the future of Pakistan’'s leading fruit commodities, citrus and mango.

The program of educating farmers and labor workers will be rolled out to include other fruit crops like apples and peaches as well as vegetables, explains CABI project manager Sohail Mazhar from his Pakistan office.

“"We have entered into an MoU to join our resources to we can meet bigger targets. The PFVA will help us to connect to different funding agencies, like government agencies, which can fund for capacity building and supply chain and quality,” he tells www.freshfruitportal.com.

“"For the first few years, we will be focusing on the citrus and mango industries in Pakistan and we will improve the labor skills of farmers and other workers so they are much better versed with the harvesting and post-harvest handling of fruit and vegetables.

"“We are expecting the quality of the produce to be improved and exporters will get much better returns for their exports, while the skill of the other laborers will get higher which has an effect on the poorer classes where many of these employees come from.”

Pakistan has been making good progress with phytosanitary issues as well as supply chain improvements, but Mazhar believes educating farm laborers as well as producers themselves is the key to increasing production and supplying consistent export-ready crops, especially to attractive markets in Europe.

"“Of course Pakistani producers want to get in to Europe. They want good returns on their crops but they also have to adhere to stricter regulations.

“"Over the last 15 years we have seen the European Union looking towards Pakistan for food quality improvements, officials from the EU have worked in Pakistan on this goal as well as other agencies.

"“But we have also realized that we must fully train all of our laborers and make sure they understand the crops they are handling, and the fact that handling practices for fruit commodities are different. We know that the training of labor classes was the missing link and if we can fix this link, as well as all of the other things, then quality can be better improved.”

www.freshfruitportal.com