Pakistan FPCCI requests incentive package to extend to horticulture
“I hope that the government and the FPCCI will finalise inclusion of the horticulture sector in the package in the next few days,” FPCCI President Zubair Tufail said.
“We raised the issue of non-inclusion of the fruits and vegetable sector on Tuesday when the government was about to announce the package. But we later mutually decided to resolve this issue later to avoid unnecessary confusion at the eleventh hour.”
Tufail said concerns of the All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) were genuine and the FPCCI hoped that they would get government support soon.
“We can immediately raise Pakistan’s horticulture exports to $1 billion if we get support of the government,” said PFVA Chairman Abdul Malik in the letter.
It said the sector could easily increase its exports to $6 billion in the next 10 years if the government and the private sector collaborated in short-, medium- and long-term plans that the PFVA had already sent to the relevant federal ministries.
Horticulture exports amounted to $641 million in 2015-16 when Pakistan exported a record number of fruit and vegetable varieties, according to the data collected by the PFVA.
source: tribune.com.pk
