Urging the government to ensure that the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements demanded by the China is met at the earliest, exporters in Paktistan last week cheered the Asian giant’s desire to import Pakistani potatoes.
“It is high time to capitalise on the huge potential of the Chinese market,” Abdul Malik, Chairman Pakistan Fruits and Vegetables Importers, Exporters and Merchants Association (PFVA), said in a letter written to the Secretary of Commerce.
Malik said that on request of the Ministry of National Food Security & Research, it was agreed that China would urgently initiate the process of potato imports from Pakistan the SPS requirements were met.
China imports approximately 1 million metric tonnes of potatoes of various varieties from different countries. Pakistan has a bumper potato crop this year and have a substantial surplus quantity for export.
Had this unique opportunity not surfaced, the growers would have no other option but to bury the huge surplus quantity in ground sustaining huge financial losses, he wrote in the letter.
Source: The News International
