The shipping of 10.37 tonnes of onion to Sri Lanka, Dubai and Muscat after attaining a 1000 tonnes weekly production capacity in the Rabi crop, marks the start of export by Pakistan of onion grown in Balochistan, says a Recorder Report.
According to market sources, two factors, ie a good onion crop in Balochistan and the absence of competition from India, which is currently busy in storing onion, have been mainly responsible for a leap in Pakistan's onion export.
Market watchers believe Pakistan will be in a position to export 1,000 tonnes of onion per week in the days ahead, but this will largely depend on the climatic conditions, as premature onset of the monsoon may frustrate the achievement of this target.
Pakistan will be able to keep up the accelerated tempo of onion export if the weather remains favourable because monsoon rains last year had badly hit onion crop in parts of interior Sindh like Sanghar, Tando Allayar Khan, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas, besides some areas of Balochistan.
In fact, the damage caused by heavy monsoon rains last year had compelled Pakistan, which is one of the leading onion exporters to the Middle and Far Eastern countries, to import onion to meet the local market demand.
Onion is grown in all the four provinces, which meets the country's local and export demand, amounting to 3,000 tonnes a day. Incidentally, Pakistan had set a target of 2.1 million tonnes production for 2006-07, and had demarcated an area of 126.3 thousand hectares for its cultivation, but torrential rains and the resulting standing water in the fields had caused a 14.3 percent shortfall in onion production. In fact, a major problem of Pakistan's agriculture sector is the wide fluctuations experienced by minor crops, such as masoor, moong, mash, potato, onion and chillies, to which sufficient attention has not been paid.
While the production of two pulses, ie moong and masoor was higher in 2006-07, the production of mash decreased by 3.6 percent. The main reason cited for the decline in production of mash was 4.6 percent decrease in the area dedicated to this crop.
Similarly, while the production of potato was significantly higher, ie 67.2 percent, the production of onion decreased by 14.3 percent, mainly due to a 16.5 percent reduction in the crop area. Such fluctuations have had a highly negative impact on the economy.
The government should therefore put maximum emphasis on promoting agro-industry to which it has not paid due attention yet. It should tap the full potential of the value-added in agriculture, which will provide a powerful boost to the industrial sector as well. Besides, it will open up new vistas of value-added exports. Meanwhile, the post-quota scenario has radically changed the global trading patterns.
With the complete phase-out of quotas, textile and clothing sector, for instance, has been experiencing wide-ranging changes. With the opening up of the world markets, and increased global competition there is a need for textile and other agro-based industries to expand their operations. Agriculture's role as supplier of raw material to industry as well as a market for industrial products makes it the most important sector of the country's economy.
The full potential of textile value-added needs to be tapped as much as the potential of other agro-based industries. Another area that needs immediate attention is the supply chain, without which it will be impossible to exploit agro-industry's full potential.
Corporatization of the supply chain, as done in India, can impart a powerful boost to agriculture. Another weak spot is the Arhti system, which is not only highly inefficient but is so devised as to benefit mainly the middleman, who plays the role of a market manipulator. This system is a major cause of food inflation in the country, while the second major factor is the wholesale export of crops such as 10,000 tonnes of onion exported to three regional states, which is bound to create a shortage in the local market.
The government should ensure the delicate supply-and-demand equilibrium to banish inflation and scarcity from the country. There is an urgent need for it to build additional storage capacity, particularly of air-conditioned variety, to store perishable commodities, which can help combat shortages, whether caused by market manipulators or natural causes.