China to import 300 tonnes of chilies from Pakistan

BEIJING: China will import 300 tonnes of chilli picked and dried at a pilot chilli field in Lahore during August, China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) General Manager of Pakistan Subsidiary, Wu Guang, said on Wednesday, adding that this is the first time Pakistani chilli would enter the Chinese market since 2020.

In July, a pilot Chilli farm project under the cooperation between Pakistani farmers and their Chinese partners – CMEC and Sichuan Litong Food Group – began to bear fruit, with a yield around three times Pakistani varieties.

The pilot project successfully completed 100 acres of plantation in the first half of 2021 in Lahore. For the 100-acre-pilot-project, the quantities of seeds are 380 grams per acre, with a yield reaching 3 tonnes per acre. The total production is expected to reach 300 tonnes.

As per details, China brought a total of 13 varieties of Chinese chillies to Pakistan since 2019. It took them three years to conduct the pilot programme, and of all these 13 varieties, two varieties, namely, PJH-302 and PJH-407, have been certified for cultivation in Pakistan.

Advanced Chinese irrigation systems have also been introduced into the field.

Umer Diyal, a farmer who worked in the pilot Chilli farm in Qasbi, Lahore, said the Chinese introduced an irrigation system, and the expense of fertilizer has been reduced and every plant was getting water. “Watering of plants is not complex and expensive anymore,” he added.

Also, contract farming helps a lot when it comes to addressing farmers’ concerns about marketing.

Agriculture-related economy is vulnerable, so “We’re conducting contract farming with Pakistani farmers,” Wu Guang said. That is, Pakistani farmers undertake to supply agreed quantities of chilli, based on the quality standards and delivery requirements of CMEC. In return, CMEC agrees to buy the chilli, at a price that is nailed down in advance.
“When the chillies are ripe, they are naturally dried and then shipped back to China for further processing,” Chen Changwei noted.

“This model generates employment in the rural economy, reduces risk for firms, and provides income for farmers,” Wu Guang said and further mentioned that in the next phase of the pilot Chilli farm project, as many as 3000 acres of land would be brought under chilli cultivation.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong praised the chilli farming project, saying that the project is expected to produce more than 8,000 tons of dried chillies with a net income of more than 100,000 rupees per acre for local farmers.

“Our ultimate goal is to cooperate with our Pakistani friends on 200, 000 acres of land here,” Chen Changwei said determinedly.

Based on the planting, they will further develop downstream deep processing industries and create more employment opportunities in the future.

Wu Guang and Chen Changwei further shared their three-step strategy. Chen noted that in the first phase of Chilli Contract Farming Project, China-Pakistan Agricultural Cooperation Pilot Zone is to be set up in five years, forming an industrial belt from areas around Faisalabad, Multan, KPK and Lahore.

The second step is processing. A chilli processing plant will be established in Pakistan within 3 years to extract chilli pigment and chilli essence, with an industrial output value of USD 200 million.

While in the third phase, a China-Pakistan food industrial park would be established in 5 to 10 years to help Pakistan boost processed chilli exports in days to come.

Wu explained, chilli is only the beginning and they are to plant more crops like garlic in Pakistan in days to come, so as to form a complete industrial chain to deep process raw material close by.

As per official statistics, Pakistan in FY2019-2020 exported 1,825 tons of chilli, worth Rs. 581.3 million, accounting for 63.6% of its peak in FY2016-17 of 5,905 tons worth Rs. 914.3 million for the last 19 fiscal years. Mostly Pakistan’s chilli and chilli products are exported to Middle Eastern markets like Saudi Arabia.