Need to Develop Farm Supply Chain Stressed
Posted by Unknown in Agriculture and Farming, Pakistan, Supply chain on Friday 25 January 2013
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| A Typical Agricultural Supply Chain |
Secretary
Commerce Zafar Mahmood has stressed upon the need for developing supply
chain of value-added farm goods to bring about quantum jump in exports.
He said Pakistan had only managed to develop supply chain for cotton
crop, but neglected all other agriculture produces.
Speaking
to a panel of Dawn here on Monday, he said that there exists big scope
for going into value-addition of a large number of farm produces such as
mangoes, kinno, dates, dairy products, vegetables, fish, byproducts of
rice and wheat etc., but needs some motivation and patronage of federal
and provincial governments.
He
said project financing would be needed to introduce technology in
value-addition chain of different farm produce and this could only be
possible once there is a focused approach and investors are given proper
guidance and assistance at all stages and levels.
“It
is not a rocket science but only needs dedication from private sector
which could bring in investment and required technology but without the
government patronage this task could not be achieved,” he maintained.
There
is a greater need, he said, to develop farm to market place of a supply
chain and logistics if a success has to be achieved in value-addition
of farm produce. He said the only way out was to concentrate on
value-addition of existing exports because presently barring textiles
most of exports were of semi-raw materials or were of low cost
value-addition.
Most
of the farm produces are being exported at a low cost simply because of
poor standard and secondly due to lack of knowledge about global
requirement for different type of treatments — vapour or hot water — and
sanitary standards needed for fresh fruits and vegetables.
“Once
awareness is created and required facilities are developed the country
could easily multiply its exports and earning of farmers within a short
period,” he added.
Responding
to a question, he agreed that such facilities should be developed
around Karachi because all goods have to pass through the city for
exports. “Pakistan needs to focus on high yielding markets but for this
our exporters have to meet their specifications starting from
procurement, grading, processing and packing.”
After
European Union imposed ban on fish imports from Pakistan on account of
poor hygienic conditions of processing units, he said, all of our fish
catch is now being exported to Vietnam from where after value-addition
it is being exported to EU member states.
The
secretary commerce said Pakistan would have to put lot of efforts in
controlling contamination in its agriculture produce including cotton,
fruits and vegetables and should ensure that it could follow world
standards. Some countries, he said, even seek traceability of fresh
fruits starting from orchard tree.He further said that logistics was yet
another important link in the entire value chain of fresh fruits and
vegetables and that would also need lot of investment and know-how.
There
would be a need for establishing cold chain starting from farm to point
of export which means that cold storage facilities will have to be
developed across the country and goods in transit will also have to be
transported through reefer containers.
In
short, he said, it is the quality and specification of fresh fruits and
vegetables which could fetch good price and make its place in the world
market.
The Dawn
