KARACHI: Khalid Tawab, Acting President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has expressed serious concerns over lack of state of the art facilities for handling mango exports. He also stressed the need for exploring new markets for mango exports, which are untapped so far. In a statement, the acting president said that Pakistani mangoes are recognised as one of the best of its kind in the world market. Mango is a perishable commodity, which needs speedy, effective and careful handling during export process while standardisation of exporting firms is another factor, which affects exports particularly the health conscious countries, he said. He further stated that Pakistan is among the fifth leading mango producers and is highly demanded throughout the world due to its natural flavor and quality. However, non-installment of Vapor Heat Treatment (VHT) and shortage of Hot Water Treatment (HWT) has made several countries untapped including Japan, South Korea, USA and Iran for exports of mangoes for the last many years. Khalid Tawab also pointed out other serious issues such as post harvesting loss, lack of compliance and standardization, phytosanitary related, contamination and lack of quality packaging & preservation, which need attention in exporting mangoes to advance countries. As per available information, 30 to 40 percent of mangoes are wasted every year due to non-availability of state of the art facilities, the vice president said. There is a huge potential of mangoes in traditional markets such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Central Asia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Europe and Scandinavia and non-traditional markets like South Africa, Japan, US, Russia and Australia etc. “The ban on the mangoes export of India by Australia open new opportunities for Pakistan to expand its export to this country,” he added. Pakistani Mangoes are high in fiber, low in calories and contain a small amount of carbohydrates, calcium, iron, potassium and a little protein which is highly demanded in European Union and other advanced nations, he stated. He also stressed the need for improvement in processing and value addition to mitigate the staggering handling losses. As value addition of mangoes and application of state-of-the-art techniques to preserve them will help the country earn immense foreign exchange, he added. He also demanded the government of organizing mango shows in foreign countries which will lead to enhancement of export and exploring new avenues.