First shipment of Pakistani citrus arrived in China

F.P. Report

BEIJING: The first shipment of citrus imported from Pakistan has arrived in Dalian, China through sea route and the fresh golden oranges would be available in the market from March 5.

“The first shipment of Pakistani citrus was dispatched from Pakistan on January 19 and cleared from Dalian Customs on February 22. The total shipment was on 40 HQ container, containing 2650 boxes of 10 KG,” Adnan Hafeez, Partner-You Lian Feng Food Trade (Dalian) Co. Ltd told APP here on Sunday.

Giving the details, he said the protocol for qualitative procedures of citrus export between Pakistan and China was signed back in 2005, but due to strict requirements, no one actually succeeded to implement it.

Previously, in 2016, a company tried to import, but failed due to non-fulfilment of cold treatment, he added.

Adnan Hafeez said his team has been working on the technical formalities of this project since September 2018 but couldn’t succeed due to technical issues. Not only this, the processing units who have licence for China were afraid to meet the high standards of China as well.

He informed that after almost two years of hard work, his company finally got all the arrangements and the first shipment of Pakistani citrus was exported from Pakistan in third week of January and cleared from Dalian Customs on February 22.

To make this procedure successful, both the processor/exported and his have made tremendous efforts while Dalian Custom authorities have also played a vital role in guiding us the procedures, he added.

He said it is the beginning of the introduction of Pakistani citrus to one of the largest market in the world.