A leading mango exporter of the country has said the recent propaganda that it has been involved in exporting Pakistani mangoes to Iran without the due process and treatment is completely baseless as it has been unleashed against a food processing company, which did pioneering technology work in Pakistan for export of its mangoes and kinnows to the international market.
In a press statement issued on Tuesday, Director of Durrani Associates Babar Khan Durrani said that certain unscrupulous elements were behind the propaganda against his company whose greed could cause irreparable damage to a major source of foreign exchange earnings by Pakistan in the form of mango exports to the developed countries.
Mr. Durrani said that fruit processing and treatment facilities of his company were always open for a thorough inspection and review by anyone including the Pakistani government and foreign authorities to duly prove their claim that the technology being used by them to treat mangoes were of the world-class standard and in no way the company could be involved in any dishonest practice that could defame Pakistani agricultural produce in the international market.
He recalled that from the year 2005 till 2014 all the Pakistani mangoes exported to Iran had been treated at the processing facility of Durrani Associates showing full confidence of the Iranian authorities in their technology for fruit processing that fully meets the international standards.
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Mr. Durrani mentioned that in 2014 when Europe and the UK banned Indian mangoes after more than 300 interceptions of fruit fly in Indian mangoes, at that time Pakistani mangoes were also tagged red as Pakistan was also having more than 169 interceptions in its mango consignments. At that time Durrani Associates stopped its own export and helped all exporters of Pakistan to process Pakistani mangoes to the EU and the UK from its HWT Plant as that year there was not a single interception of fruit fly in UK and Europe as it was the biggest breakthrough in mango export to the EU countries.
Durrani Associates had also provided free of charge consultancy and technological assistance services to all Pakistani mango exporters so that the processing technology available to it could be replicated elsewhere in Pakistani for export of Pakistani mangoes to Europe by ensuring that any mango consignment from Pakistan didn’t carry fruit fly.
He said that Durrani Associates was the only mango processing facility of Pakistan duly recognized and registered by Australia since 2013 for importing Pakistani mangoes. He said that owing to the services of the company, Pakistani mangoes were introduced in the markets of China in 2006-7 and in South Korea in 2013.
Apart from this Durrani Associates is recognized as being a world class mango processing facility in Pakistan by nine countries including Lebanon, Jordan, and Mauritius.
He said that people behind propaganda against the Durrani Associates on social and mainstream media had the ultimate aim of pressurizing the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) to allow export of Pakistani mangoes without any treatment or due inspection of the mango consignments.
Mr. Durrani said that such efforts were being made after the Iranian authorities in 2019 had visited 19 hot water treatment plants in Pakistan for mango exports as they declined to recognize and register 14 such plants due to the faulty and substandard status of the processing facilities.
He demanded that a team comprising of senior officials of the DPP and Ministry of National Food Security and Research should be constituted for thorough checking and inspection of such treatment facilities in the country so to recommend to Iran only such plants, which duly meet the international standards for mango processing for export purposes.
He said that a proper system being followed by the DPP’s Sea Port office in Karachi for mango exports to Iran should become a nationwide standard for the purpose as it should also be followed by the fruit processing facilities in Mutan, Lahore, and Bhalwal.
Keeping in mind Durrani Associates was only approved exporter of Pakistani Mangoes from 2005 till 2015 in which they have increased export market of Pakistan Mangoes to Iran for approx 15000 ton.
In 2015 approximately 19 more HWT plant have been approved by Iran Quarantine department but since then they failed to increase mango exports from Pakistan as it needs a of lot marketing efforts and years of hard work .
He said that the Durrani Associates was always available for an open debate with the elements involved in propaganda against its fruit processing facilities so to fully expose their vicious designs against the Pakistani economy.
