Fani dashed Surat traders’ hopes for Eid sales boost in Bengal

Following the news that Fani was likely to strike West Bengal and Odisha, the Surat Textile Transport Association called a meeting of textile transporters a few days ago and decided to stop dispatching goods to both these states, keeping in mind the safety of the trucks, its drivers and the loaded parcels. A single trucks carries around 200 parcels of sarees and dress materials, and daily 80 such trucks are sent to various parts in both these states from Surat, a member of the Surat Textile Transport Association said.

“Around 40 textile transporters had stopped taking parcel bookings for both these states. Some called their truck drivers who were already on their way to these states and told them to make a halt at safer places,” Surat Textile Transport Association President Yuvraj Deshle told The Indian Express.

As feared, Cyclone Fani left massive destruction in its wake in those states, and some Surat traders were affected too.

“The truck owners suffered monetary loss. We received news that two trucks from Surat carrying parcels of sarees and dress materials overturned in Sambalpur in Odisha. The truck driver and cleaner are safe but the parcels were damaged as it submerged into water,” Deshle said.

He added that they would wait till the situation turned normal to resume transport services to the two states.

President of the Federation of Surat textile Traders Association Manoj Agrawal said the industry had already not been doing well in the past few months and Fani dashed their hopes of a turnaround in fortunes during the festival season. “The marriage season and Eid festival are near but due to devastation (caused by Fani), business went down,” said Agrawal.

“The industry was also not doing well in the past few months and in addition Fani brought losses to textile traders of up to 20 percent in both these states,” said Agrawal.

Agrawal said most of Eid shopping for sarees and dress materials usually starts in the beginning of Ramzan in West Bengal. But the Surat textile traders are not in a rush to send their goods over as they anticipate payment issues, considering that their local clients must have incurred losses in the cyclone themselves.

Suresh Agrawal a textile trader of Surat doing business in West Bengal said, “We were hoping for good business during Eid in West Bengal, but we have stopped taking bookings from retailers and wholesalers in several parts of West Bengal as we will not get timely payment.”