Vegetable, fruit exports up 16pc

KARACHI: Pakistan’s exports of vegetables and fruits increased by 16 percent to $625 million in fiscal 2012-13, the All-Pakistan Fruits and Vegetables Exporters, Importers, and Merchants Association reported on Saturday.

Pakistan had earned $538 million from exports of vegetables and fruits in fiscal 2011-12, it said.

The increase in exports resulted from Pakistan’s reaching out to new export markets for its vegetables and fruits, including South Korea, Mauritius and Japan, association’s chairman Waheed Ahmed said.

In the same fiscal year, the country resumed export of potatoes to the Middle East after a seven year’s gap, he said.

The country exported record volumes of potato, onion and oranges during in 2012-13, he said. Pakistan exported a record 300,000 tons of potatoes in the last fiscal.

Pakistan exported a record 250,000 tons of onion during the year after it harvested a bumper crop of onion, he said. The exported oranges amounted to 275,000 tons.