KARACHI: President of Pakistan will gift mangoes to heads of friendly states as well as potential buying countries to showcase the brilliance of Pakistani mangoes, ARY News reported on Sunday.
The decision to sent gifts of Pakistan’s best mangoes as a part of trade diplomacy has a well-defined objective to strengthen diplomatic relations with friendly countries, besides introducing the fruit to new markets so that the country’s horticulture exports could be enhanced.
President Dr Arif Alvi, has decided that Pakistan would promote trade by gifting mangoes to all friendly countries.
Federal Aviation Division in a letter to Director General Civil Aviation has directed to take steps for sending gifts of Pakistani mangoes to 17 heads of states and governments.
The mango gifts will be dispatched to Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Oman, Malaysia, Morocco, Nepal, Singapore, Spain, UK, Italy and other friendly countries.
The letter has demanded July and August flight schedules of Turkish, Qatari and Emirates airlines, as well as the schedule of flights of the national airlines to the concerned countries.
Pakistan will dispatch overall 4,810 kilograms of mangoes to the heads of states of 17 countries.
The CAA has also been directed to arrange and facilitate the special cargo and relevant services and provide details about timely and safe dispatch of the mango cargo.
It is pertinent to mention here that in a meeting the president was apprised of the current state of export of the fruit and vegetable sector and the reasons behind Pakistan’s meager share of less than 0.5pc in international trade.
The participants were informed that the international trade of fruits & vegetables was around $200 billion, while Pakistan exported fruits & vegetables worth $651 million in 2018-19, which was just 0.33pc of this total revenue.
Pakistan is ranked sixth in terms of mango production and fifth in terms of mango exporting countries in the world, having around 5pc share. The country’s mango industry has a volume of Rs100 billion while millions of people are employed in the industry.
Pakistan exports mangoes to 40 countries of the world and by adopting meticulous planning and removal of barriers restricting the export, Pakistan can also have access to high-value international markets include USA, Japan, China, South Korea and Australia.
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