ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce has not utilised Pakistan Horticulture Development Export Company (PHDEC) for the enhancement of horticulture exports as till date country has no export strategy for horticulture and Pakistan share in international market remained meager.
This was stated by FPCCI former Chief on Horticulture Exports, Ahmad Jawad in a statement. He said PHDEC initially worked well but later it virtually becomes dormant as it failed to introduce concrete measures for the promotion of horticulture exports. Even from the last five years company runs through acting CEO.
He said global trade and demand for horticulture commodities has increased over time. It has quadrupled, from USD 51 billion in 2001 to USD 200 billion in 2018 and in contrast Pakistan has been unable to capitalize from the growth in global demand due to a lack of focus and inadequate investment in requisite infrastructure such as cold chain, packing houses, proper logistics, and processing units and till date Pakistan horticulture exports not more than $700 million which is unfortunate.
Jawad said mostly officials of the commerce ministry believed that after the 18th amendment, horticulture sector is under the mandate of the provinces and the federal government has nothing do with it, but they ignore the aspect regarding exports of horticulture sector as it is the solely responsibility of the commerce ministry to look after the affairs and problems of this sector. “It was unfortunate that the horticulture export policy was not formulated by the ministry despite our repeated requests from the FPCCI forum” he added.
The company’s licence, which was cancelled by the SECP in 2015 due to non-compliance, has been restored; the external audit of accounts for the last many years has been conducted, the Memorandum of Association of the Company has been updated, the human resource has been right-sized, a stock taking of company’s projects has been completed, the Human Resource policies and procedures have been developed and the office of the company has been shifted from a residential building in Lahore to a corporate environment in Islamabad, but yet to see the vibrant and industry oriented outcome from this organization.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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