Second shipment of citrus imported from Pakistan arrives in China

F.P. Report

BEIJING: The second shipment of citrus imported from Pakistan has arrived in Dalian, a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province of China.

“A container of 40 feet containing around 27 tons of kinnow imported from Pakistan has arrived in Dalian,” Adnan Hafeez, Partner-You Lian Feng Food Trade (Dalian) Co. Ltd told APP here on Sunday.

He informed that third shipment was on way and was likely to reach in first week of next month.

The import of Pakistan kinnow was started with the arrival of first shipment at port of Dalian. The fresh golden oranges from Pakistan were put on display in the markets for the consumers from March 5.

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

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

Adnan Hafeez said his team had been working on the technical formalities of this project since September 2018 but was not able to import citrus owing to technical issues.

Moreover, the processing units which had a 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 finalized 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.

He acknowledged support of Dalian Custom authorities who played a vital role in guiding his company about the procedures.

He expressed the confidence that Pakistani citrus would get a very good response in China, one of the largest markets in the world.