Ghee exports for Afghanistan: product data to be printed in Dari and Pushto scripts

The government is going to ask the exporters trading in vegetable ghee and cooking oil with Afghanistan to print product information in Dari and Pushto languages on retail and wholesale packings for promoting sale of Pakistani products.
Sources said on Sunday that the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has asked the Ministry of Commerce to incorporate new conditions in the Trade Policy (2007-08) to attract Afghan ghee and cooking oil consumers. In this connection, the CBR has requested the Commerce Ministry to announce the decision in the coming Trade Policy, for the benefit of ghee/cooking oil exporters.
The Board has made these recommendations in view of a survey of different Afghan markets. Sources said that a delegation comprising senior customs officials of Collectorate of Customs Peshawar and Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) visited Afghanistan on May 3-6 2007 to survey the Afghan market to find out reasons behind decrease in exports of vegetable ghee and cooking oil to Afghanistan during last few years.
According to the survey report, Pakistan's exports of vegetable ghee and cooking oil to Afghanistan remained 113,750 tons during July-April (2006-07) against 141,310 tons during the corresponding period of 2005-06, showing a decrease of 19.5 percent.
The report further said that Afghanistan's ghee imports from other countries transited through Pakistan during July-April (2006-07) were 88,852 tons against 39,025 tons, reflecting an extraordinary growth of 127.07 percent. Prior to 2001, Pakistan had dominated 100 percent of the Afghan market, whereas now Pakistan's products are out of it.
During the joint survey, the tax officials noted that Pakistani brands available in Afghanistan market considerably lacked in terms of packing quality and product information provided on the retail containers, and ingredients, nutritional value and other information are also missing pertaining to these products.
At present, this information is printed in Urdu, which is against the sentiments of Afghan consumers, who are unable to follow the language, making the product unattractive for them, the report said. Similarly, other foreign brands available in the Afghan market contain the same information in Dari and Pushto, resulting in sale increase.
Keeping in view, the CBR has requested the Commerce Ministry to incorporate condition in the Trade Policy requiring the exporters of vegetable ghee and cooking oil to Afghanistan to print product information in Dari and Pushto languages on wholesale and retail packings.