ISLAMABAD - Caretaker Minister for Commerce, Mian Misbahur Rehman Wednesday said the government was taking steps to promote fruit and vegetable farming to enhance country's export in this sector.

"Pakistan is naturally gifted with a diversity of land and weather where a huge variety of quality fruits and vegetable can be grown and exported across the globe," he said while addressing a ceremony accompanied by "Mango Show" here.

The Mango Show was organized by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to introduce a wide range of king of fruits to dignitaries.

The event was attended by a large number of diplomats, mango growers, exporters, and businessmen.

A wide variety of mangoes especially Chaunsa, Dosehri, Langra, Anwar Ratol, Fajri, Saroli, Desi and Sindhri were displayed at the show for international guests.

Mian Misbah  highlighted the challenges faced by the mango growers to process the perishable fruit for a longer time and said that they needed proper training to market their product across the world in a more competitive way.

He also stressed the mango growers to fully focusing on adding value to the fruit to earn more revenue.

He said during last year, Pakistan's exports started growing as the export increased to over $23 billion during the year 2017-18 from around $20 billion in 2016-17, thus showing an increase of 13 percent. Similarly he said mango export also witnessed an increase of 17 percent in the previous fiscal year as compared to the preceding year.

Representative of Mango growers, Muhammad Javed Jamali said the even was an effective tool to promote the special taste and aroma among the international community.

Meanwhile Director TDAP Muhammad Irfan informed APP that in Pakistan, 72,703 acres of land is utilized to harvest mango crops and the annual production is two million metric tonnes.

At least 1.3 million tonnes of mangoes are cultivated in Punjab only. 

Sharing the objective of the event, he said it will develop the taste of the international community for the Pakistani mango varieties thus promoting soft image of Pakistan through trade related events.

He said due to rich in taste, sweetness and quality the Pakistani mangoes are in high demand round the globe. Pakistani mangoes are very special and popular as it has a unique aroma and taste.

Irfan maintained that the mango event was organized to attract international buyers, to increase exports of mangoes and to earn maximum possible foreign exchange.

Later, the minister distributed awards among the highly performed mango exporters.