KARACHI - Pakistan Horticulture Development & Export Company (PHDEC) Friday conducted a webinar on the topic of “Harvest and Post-Harvest Management of Citrus Fruits.” The aim of the webinar was to bring the maximum number of the stakeholders on board to discuss harvesting, post-harvest handling of citrus to minimize the post-harvest losses. Target audiences of the webinar were processors, progressive growers, R&D and private companies.
Pakistan is 15th largest citrus producing country with 2.4 MMT annual production and it has 4 lac acres cultivated area of citrus. In Pakistan, citrus fruit has been predominantly cultivated in four provinces, namel: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Sindh and Balochistan. Among all four provinces, Punjab is considered to be the hub of citrus production. Punjab province produces more than 90% of total kinnow production whereas KP mainly produces oranges among all citrus fruits in the country.
Malik Ehsan Ul Haque from Citrus Research Institute (Sargodha) shared the current area and production of citrus in Pakistan and last 10 year’s growth trend. He trained the growers on harvesting, safe handling, packing and packaging of citrus. He also explained the causes of post-harvest losses, lack of skilled labors, Immature/premature/over mature harvest, poor sorting and grading practices/poor temperature and relative humidity in storage/Improper packing and washing. He recommended that citrus growers should adopt modern techniques for harvesting post-harvesting and government should provide facilities of packing materials/refrigerated trucks for transportation and access to market to minimize post-harvest losses. He explained about the post-harvest losses of citrus at different stage from harvesting to packing and transportation. He briefed about the techniques to minimize post-harvest losses. He also explained the method of harvesting and time of harvesting of citrus, and modern techniques of sorting/grading and packaging of citrus.
This webinar underscores PHDEC’s dedication to providing valuable resources and knowledge sharing platforms to empower growers and enhance productivity in the horticulture sector. PHDEC will keep organizing such kind of activities virtually and on ground for the development of horticulture industry of Pakistan.