Mango cultivation in Pakistan

 Mango is a delicious fruit grown in slightly less than ninety tropical and sub-tropical countries of the world. The fruit is most­ly eaten fresh. It is also processed into preserves, juices, jams, jellies, nectars as well as crisp mango chips, which are eaten as snacks. Mango is an excellent source of vitamins A. B and C and contains water, proteins, Sugar, fats, fibers and iron etc.

The top ten mango producing countries in the world are India, China, Mexico, Thailand, Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil and Egypt. Well over four-fifths of global mango production comes from the top ten. Asia, the original home of the fruit, provides about three-fourths of world mangoes, of which two-thirds come from India alone.

Pakistani mangoes are sweet, aromatic, yellow skinned and soft. This delicious fruit is nutritionally superior, source of several vitamins and minerals. Mango farms in Pakistan range in size from less than 2ha to more than 400ha. Unfortunately mango industry of Pakistan is still poorly developed. Production, post harvest and marketing systems are poorly developed and returns are distributed quite unevenly, favoring the middlemen.

Fruit quality in Pakistan is generally poor and 30 to 40 per cent of fruit is wasted in the harvest to market system. Modern infrastructure for cool storage, grading, post harvest treatment and transport is almost non-existent. Orchard owners do not take care of their orchards; they simply sell the fruit of the orchard to the contractors. So, very few mango farmers in Pakistan are responsible for selling or marketing their own crop. There is no processing plant installed to properly process mango for export.

There are 6 Global GAP certified Mango Orchards in Punjab and only one in Sindh. The total area of the Orchards in Punjab is 2109 Acres and in Sindh is 135 Acres. Certification is in process for eight farms.

Climate of Sindh, gets warmer about one month earlier than Punjab that gives the province, the privilege to grow early varieties of mango. Subsequently, a new trend of growing late varieties in Punjab has received a wide popularity which has extended the market period and added to the exportable surplus.

Pakistan produced 1727.93 thousand tones of mangoes in the year 2008-09 whereas total world export of mangoes amounted to US Dollars 1,194,775,729 and Pakistan’s share of export was only USD 33,178,617.