By WEB DESK: The agricultural sector, already grappling with an ongoing wheat crisis, faces additional hurdles as juice and nectar producers reduce fruit purchases due to recently implemented higher taxes, reports surfaced on Tuesday.
According to the report, juice companies have scaled back operations in fruit markets by reducing procurement and contract-farming objectives. Historically, the formal juice sector annually purchased over 100,000 tonnes of fruit from local farmers, but these figures have significantly declined.
Fruit pulp processors typically establish informal contracts with orchard owners and exporters months before harvest to purchase fruits that don’t meet export standards. However, this year has seen a notable reduction in such contracts, leaving orchard owners anxiously awaiting buyers.
Shahzad Goraya, a mango farmer from the adjoining district of Multan, noted a change in the industry’s approach. “This year, no company has approached me to buy surplus mangoes,” he said. “In the past, they would over-contract to ensure they met their needs even if some suppliers failed to deliver.”
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Previously, purchases made by pulp, nectar, and juice producers helped stabilise the local market and provided fair compensation to growers. With their decreased participation, fruit prices are falling, adversely affecting orchard owners.
Goraya also highlighted additional pressures from restricted fruit exports to Central Asian nations, compounded by trade route complications through Afghanistan and Iran. “With the juice industry fading from the market and fruit prices dropping, we may have to stop planting and even remove existing trees to sell as firewood, as we cope with rising costs for power, diesel, fertilizer, and labor,” he added.
Ahsan Ali, a guava farmer from Sheikhupura, criticised government policies for harming rather than aiding the fruit value chain, essential for improving agricultural productivity and supporting the rural economy, now struggling with unemployment-induced urban migration. “Value addition is the only way to rescue our economy. Otherwise, we will remain merely producers of raw materials, reliant on other countries for finished products,” he remarked.
“We appeal to Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz to ensure that regressive tax policies by the federal government do not endanger the agriculture sector,” he added.
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