Country Can Earn Foreign Exchange By Promoting Floriculture Held At University Of Agriculture Faisalabad

Fakhir Rizvi Published April 03, 2018 | 06:41 PM

The country can earn huge foreign exchange by promoting floriculture.

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd Apr, 2018 ) :The country can earn huge foreign exchange by promoting floriculture. This was stated by experts on Tuesday while addressing the inauguration session of an international seminar on 'Modern floriculture production and product development techniques', arranged by the Institute of Horticulture Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, in collaboration with Programme Utizending Managers (PUM) and Greenworks Lahore.

Chairing the session, UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Iqbal Zafar said that having huge potential to grow excellent quality flowers, our share in the international flower market is very less. We are importing it to meet our domestic needs, he added.

He said that it was a need of the hour to diversify the agriculture sector to fight the challenges of poverty, food security and other issues.

Floriculture expert from Netherlands Theo Rutten siad on the occasion that Pakistan was blessed with suitable climate to grow flowers of every season.

But, the country was not tapping the potential. He added that lack of awareness and non-implementation of sophisticated methods were the reason behind it. He said that Netherlands was exporting flowers to more than 100 countries including Germany, UK, France, Poland and Russia.

He said that uncooled flowers lose 15 per cent of value on daily basis. Director Institute of Horticulture Sciences Dr Aman Ullah said that the country lacks in the cold chain of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

He also called for promoting processing and value chain. Theo Van Der Krogt and Kee Van Der Plas from Netherlands and Green works Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Saleem Ahmad also spoke on the occasion.