LAHORE : Director Harvest Tradings, Ahmad Jawad has stressed upon the need that financial institutions should support horticulture sector in order to increase exports at lower interest rates. Its high time SBP notify the SRO in this regard as Pakistan is facing severe competition in value-added horticulture products across the globe, he added.
"Due to wide difference in prices, Pakistani exporters are finding it difficult to exploit highly valued markets, particularly in the Gulf and European region for fruit products", he said.
Addressing during the green growth workshop, Jawad said that unlimited opportunities were available for the export of fruits and vegetables and with a little more efforts exports could reach $1 billion in three years easily. He said that currently over 28 types of fruits and 30 types of vegetables are growing in the Pakistan all around the year and a large amount of these are consumed in the domestic markets.
Comparing performance of Pakistan in the context of horticulture products with India, India has well arisen as the world's second largest fruit producing country and it achieved also a substantial increase in the production of horticultural crops in recent years, Jawad added.