In Pakistan, the prices of oranges may rise this winter as the production recorded was very low (50 percent) due to acute canal water scarcity and unexpected higher temperatures during the flowering stage of the plants.
According to PBF Vice President Ahmad Jawad, kinnow exports will resume from the first week of December. In order to facilitate exporters, the State Bank of Pakistan should properly facilitate them precisely for Iranian and Russian markets to issue timely E-forms and make special arrangements for banking channels, he urged. Jawad lamented that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) could not open formal banking channels both for Iranian and Russian markets for the last couple of years due to which their potential could not be tapped.
Jawad also said that the Iranian market can absorb between 60,000 to 80,000 tons of kinnows, while the size of the Russian-Ukrainian-Belarus market (the largest citrus importer in the world) for Pakistani citrus fruit may be doubled from the present around 50,000 tons within no time provided the government establishes proper banking links with the two markets.
Source: dailytimes.com.pk