Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
Islamabad/BEIJING: Pakistan is one of the major countries that are self-sufficient for domestic use of potato and seed development and is also a vital exporter of this vegetable.
Meanwhile, China is potentially a big market for Pakistani potatoes because the prices of potatoes in China are higher, as compared to Pakistan, particularly from January to April every year.
During the initial four months of the current fiscal year, overall vegetable exports of Pakistan increased by about 90 percent in quantity and over 57 percent in value, thanks to brisk potato shipments.
Patron in Chief of All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) Waheed Ahmad said that vegetables were exported yearly depending on their availability, but potatoes and onions hold a larger share.
China Economic Net (CEN) reported that last year, floods in Sindh and Balochistan’s province devastated crops of onion, while Pakistan’s potato production enhanced to 7.937m tonnes in the Fiscal year 2022 from 5.873m tonnes in Fiscal Year 2021, up by 35pc as floods did not hit Punjab severely which is a hub of potato production,
Director of Potato Research Institute Sahiwal Syed Ijaz ul Hassan said that despite these optimistic figures, the industry was still facing many challenges adding that Potato was not a crop for poor masses because its initial cost of production is high and 35-40% of the cost goes to seeds.
He further said that Pakistan imports about 20,000 tons of potato seeds yearly. To bring this number down, Potato Research Institute Sahiwal was trying to develop local potato varieties, and the institute has created potato varieties, including PRI, Sahiwal, Sadaf, Ijaz 22, and Cosmo.
Some of the seeds grown in the Sahiwal Division produce as much as foreign breeds and other products even more.
Pakistan’s potato is exported mainly to CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries like Russia, Azerbaijan, UAE, Iraq, Oman, the entire gulf, and Singapore, Malaysia in the Far East. “I hope we can further expand our export to more countries in the coming days,” Waheed said.
China as a Big Market for Potato Exports
Syed Ijaz ul Hassan believes that China is potentially a larger and more attractive market for Pakistani potatoes, as their price in China is higher, especially from January to April every year.
We can cultivate and harvest potatoes in Pakistan in some form around the whole year. We have three crops of potatoes. The first is called the Autumn crop. We sow it in October and harvest it in February.
The second is an imported variety harvested from January to April. The third is the hill crop cultivated from April to September, Syed Ijaz ul Hasan explained.
He also mentioned that the appearance of Pakistan potatoes could be a plus point. International markets, like Dubai, have more demand because of their beauty and color. And if we export it to China, it would have more benefit for the country, he added.
