'Billions of dollars can be earned by exporting seedless Kinnow'

FAISALABAD: The country could earn billions of dollars by exporting seedless Kinnow, said Qamar Yusuf, an agriculture expert at the Ayub Agriculture Research Institute, here, on Tuesday.

Talking to APP, he said Punjab was producing 95 per cent of citrus fruits and its orchards were sprawling over 4.5 lakh acres of land mainly in districts of Central Punjab, including Sargodha, Faisalabad and Sahiwal.

He said Kinnow in major variety which had great demand in Middle East, Iran and western countries as an exotic fruit. Pakistan exported a huge quality of Kinnow and last year 339,300 tons kinnow were exported.

He said the Punjab government was making hectic efforts to improve its quality and in this connection scientists had evolved a new variety of Kinnow known as AARI-2016 which had been approved by various government institutions.

In Punjab, many progressive growers were replacing their traditional Kinnow plants with seedless varieties of Kinnow, he added.