Pakistan Mango Exports Set to Decline by 30,000 Tonnes Due to Middle East war impacts

TANDO ALLAHYAR: Beneath the scorching sun in Pakistan’s southern mango belt, labourers balance on tree branches, working at a swift pace to throw the freshly picked fruit into sacks held ready by farmhands waiting below.

The challenges sparked by the Middle East war underscore the geopolitical vulnerability of Pakistan’s economy, heavily dependent on an agriculture sector already struggling with the impacts of climate change.

Though mango season is well underway, far less of the fruit will be bound for the lucrative export market than usual, with Pakistan’s agriculturally dependent economy caught in the crosshairs of the Middle East crisis that its government has helped mediate.

“Almost 80 percent of mango export is to the Gulf region, Iran, and Afghanistan,” Waheed Ahmed, Chief Patron of the All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporter Association, told AFP, noting conflict had gripped all of those countries in recent months.

Total mango exports were expected to shrink by around 30,000 tonnes since last season to 80,000 tonnes this year, Ahmed said.

“The border to Afghanistan is closed, there is war in Iran… there is war in the entire Middle East.”