Dates Expo Held, Experts Call For Value Addition In Dates

One day date show was held on Tuesday at Karachi Expo Centre, where many varieties of dates from Sindh and Balochistan were displayed for local and foreign buyers

KARACHI, Aug. 29 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Aug, 2017 ) : One day date show was held on Tuesday at Karachi Expo Centre, where many varieties of dates from Sindh and Balochistan were displayed for local and foreign buyers.

A seminar on "Value-addition to Dates" was also organised on the sideline. It was attended by researchers and senior officers of the concerned departments of Sindh and Federal governments, representatives of dates growers of Sindh and Balochistan, traders of dates.

These events were organised by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and sponsored by Ministry of Commerce. Sindh Secretary of Agriculture, Sajjid Jamal Narejo and Director General TDAP Dr. Usman Narejo along with a team of senior researchers on dates took round of the dates stalls from Sindh and Balochistan under the banners of food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of United Nations (Balochistan Chapter), Sindh Enterprises Development Fund, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Sukkur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sindh Agricultural Growth Project--Date-palm Value Chain, Sukkur Division.

In Balochistan, the main areas of dates crop are Turbat, Panjgur, Washuq, Kharaan and Chagai. Khairpur and Ranipur districts are the centres of dates growing in Sindh. Sindh Secretary Food Agriculture, Sajjid Jamal Abro, speaking at the seminar, said the provincial government was doing a lot for the growth and marketing of dates.

Big investment had been done in the Dates Research Institute, Kot Deji, near Khairpur City.

Now, this facility has been upgraded as a fulfledged research institute. Training also being given to the dates growers in tissue culture.

Millions of date-palm plants had been provided to the growers to strengthen the base of dates crop. Khajur Mandi was being constructed in Khairpur for proper marketing of dates crop. There would be processing facilities as well, the Secretary said.

Under Sindh Agriculture Growth Project, the dates growers were being provided assistance from cultivation to marketing. TDAP's Director General Dr. Usman Narejo spoke of the initiatives the authority for promotion of dates exports.

Dr. Waqar Akram from Institute of business Administration, Sukkur and Dr. Ghulam Hussain Markhand from Khairpur University emphasized on value addition of dates to get the real value of large stock of dates being exported from Pakistan.

Pakistan is sixth largest dates producer in the world and exports around two million tones of dates of total eight million tonnes world exports. But, Dr. Markhand regretted, Pakistan was not included among top ten dates exporting countries because of lack of value-addition and marketing strategy.

The stall holders from Sindh and Balochistan complained of lack of processing and marketing facilities. Instead, they had to sell their raw products to middlemen at very low price. Most of their dates produce, they said, was being shifted to Lahore where it was processed/value-added for the export. APP/ah/ms/kmd � 14:21/16:30/16:30