20000105

Kinno MEP

fixed at $1.9

fob per crate

MUZAFFAR QURESHI

KARACHI: The Ministry of Commerce has fixed $1.9 F.O.B. per crate as minimum export price (MEP) for Kinno. The Collectorate of Customs (Export) has been advised by the ministry not to allow any consignment below the MEP. A crate of Kinno normally weighs eight to nine kgs.

This was revealed by Mahmood Rabbani, Chairman, Export Sub-Committee of All Pakistan Fruits and Vegetables Exporters Association. He said that the MEP had been fixed to achieve better export prices.

He said that the Kinno export drive was in full swing with a new country Philippines appearing on the export it inerary of the fruit. The major export market for Pakistani Kinno is the Far East and the Middle East which takes 40 percent each of country's total exports. The balance 20 percent Kinno is taken by Sri Lanka and other countries.

Rabbani expressed the hope that the country would make 20 percent more export of Kinno compared with last year because it had a bumper crop and prices in the local market are reasonable.

The Export Promotion Bureau has launched a drive to boost the Kinno export in new markets. It has organised an exhibition of Kinno in Dhaka on January 24, 2000. A delegation of exporters will leave for Dhaka on January 22 to meet fruit importers in Bangladesh for sale of Pakistani Kinno which is of best quality. At present Dhaka is buying Kinno from India which is of inferior quality.

Another exporters delegation will visit Malaysia on January 22 to explore the possibility of boosting export of Kinno. Malaysia is already a buyer and the visit is aimed to get orders to dispose of the surplus of Kinno.