Pakistan will not be able to export mangoes to Japan, at least for the current season, officials said. “Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) of the fruit is the basic condition of the Japanese authorities to allow import of Pakistani mangoes,” an official close to the mater told The News. “Although Japan has lifted its 16-year old ban on Pakistani mangoes, the VHT condition remains intact,” he said.
There is no VHT plant of commercial level in Pakistan, the official said. The VHT plant in Karachi, set up with Japanese assistance, has limited capacity of treating up to 25 kilograms of mangoes at a time, and therefore it is not feasible for processing export shipments. Japanese external trade officials told The News that Pakistani authorities were aware of the VHT condition for mangoes for the last few years, but they have failed to install the plant.
The efforts by Pakistani officials in Japan to remove the 16 years old ban on Pakistani mangoes failed to bear fruit, a senior official in Pak embassy in Tokyo confided. The country has lost another chance to export mangoes to Japan, he said. He was sceptical, if the Pak authorities would be able to install a VHT plant of industrial capacity to meet the Japanese condition.
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