Daily Times
July 14, 2021
China will import 300 tons of chilli picked and dried at a pilot chilli field in Lahore, Punjab province in August, said Wu Guang, General Manager of Pakistan Subsidiary, China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), adding that it is the first time Pakistani chilli 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.
Chen Changwei, Chairman of Sichuan Litong Food Group, China, noted that their pilot Chilli farm 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 tons per acre. The total production is expected to reach 300 tons. While chilli is grown on 47,349 hectares in Pakistan with a crop yield of about 2.68 tons per hectare (1.072 tons per acre) and an annual production of around 126,943 tons in FY 2018-19.