Ahmed Khan Malik

The Sindh government has planned to set up processing plants for fruit value addition. The province produces mangoes, dates, bananas and other fruits in abundance but lacks the processing plants, depriving it of huge income, reports WealthPK. “We are working on these processing plants by involving small and medium enterprises (SMEs),” Shaukat Boghio, Additional Director of Sindh Investment Cell, told WealthPK. He said the government would facilitate the private sector to come forward and set up the value addition plants. Fruit production in the province lacks value addition. For instance, the date palm sector remains underdeveloped due to lack of value addition, modern maturing process and cold storage facilities.

Usually, the processed dates are stored at a certain temperature before being packed in various forms (as fruit) or diverted to the syrup and paste lines. Value addition is also done by stuffing nuts or coating the fruit with chocolate. The fruit industry has a great potential for export of fresh or processed products. There is a need to focus on this industry and upgrade it by boosting fresh fruit packing, grading and processing for value addition and approaching the markets for the export of fresh fruit and value-added products. Izzat Korai, Director of the Agriculture Department, told WealthPK that a combination of the production of major crops with the farming of dates, mangoes, guavas, bananas, lemons, and citrus varieties, including grapefruit and oranges, was a peculiarity of Sindh.

He said the fruit sector productivity and income increase was a part of the Sindh Agriculture Growth Project (SAGP) as it aimed to improve productivity and market access of small and medium producers/growers in important commodity value chains. The development objective will be achieved by investing in knowledge and technology for producers in the sub-sectors of crops and livestock, and strengthening public sector institutions to enhance the enabling environment for sustainable sectoral growth. SAGP is designed to help the small and medium producers, especially those producing one of the selected commodities such as dates, onions, chilies, rice etc. He said agriculture was one of the most important sectors of economy significantly contributing to the province’s economic growth, food security and poverty reduction.

Sindh produces fruits and vegetables in large quantities, including mangoes, bananas, dates, onions and red chilies. Much of the production of these higher-value crops are concentrated in well-defined clusters -vegetables and milk in the peri-urban areas of Karachi and Hyderabad, dates in Khairpur, red chilies in Umerkot, bananas in various clusters, onion in Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro, Sanghar and Matiari districts. Located in the south, the crop growing season in Sindh is several weeks earlier than in the Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, and this translates into a strong market advantage for horticulture products. There is a huge potential for increased output through improved efficiency.

Credit: INP-WealthPk