An official in the Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company told APP here Wednesday that Pakistan was the sixth largest citrus producing and exporting country in the world.
He said that citrus is grown on an area of about 199.5 thousand hectare with annual production of 2458.5 thousand metric tons.
Kinnow season year 2010-11 was started in early November 2010 and even at this time kinnow color was not developed properly but its brix was at par required for most of gulf export markets.
At present, he said that more than 200 packing houses were in action with production of about 8000 metric tons per day adding that commercial exporters were supporting the kinnow industry and sharing the main business risks of common processors.
Meanwhile, he said that kinnow is being exported to all destinations and permission for kinnow import in Iran at a meager four per cent duty was a great opportunity for Pakistani exporters and they availed it fully by sending huge consignments to Iran through Quetta.
All the inputs were easily available in required demand, but he said that at the start of season, there were some issues regarding labor availability because of floods in the country but local labor replaced it on time.
He said that final statistics would be announced by the Federal Bureau of Statistics and it is expected that final figures of kinnow export may cross the 300,000 metric tons mark.
