Slowdown grounds export of vegetables

Punjab never had any well-developed infrastructure for export of perishables. But in 2004 and 2005,the initiation of exotic horticulture which involves growing of vegetables such as broccoli,coloured capsicum,okra,sugar snap peas,zucchini,etc coincided with start of new international flights from Amritsar airport,most notably the Jet Airways flight to London and a flight by Singapore airlines.

In the absence of sufficient passengers,these airlines were more than happy to take consignments of vegetables to their scheduled destinations. All seemed to have been going well and many farmers from the state entered into agreements with wholesalers and retailers based in London and Brussels. The problem started when the slowdown led to cancellation of these flights. Jet scrapped its flight a month ago and the Singapore airlines will discontinue its flight from February 2.

As Mittal told Chief Secretary R I Singh in a meeting last week,These are perishable commodities and their quick dispatch is important. These glitches are hampering our growth.

The Fieldfresh project is spread over 300 acres of land on the outskirts of Ludhiana and involves 88 contract farmers. An investment of Rs 50 crore has been made so far and Mittal feels that if infrastructure inadequacies are removed,this can go up to Rs 250 crore. He isnt the only one complaining.

As Rajdeep Uppal of Narain Exim,based in Amritsar,says,There are regions in Europe with a substantial Asian population and the superstores located in these areas are our main procurers. We had got orders from a lot of chains based in South Hall area of London. Our consignments of tomatoes,peas,okra and bitter gourd were ready for dispatch but that has been delayed.

The obvious way out here it to take the produce to Delhi airport. But given the short life of these vegetables,travel time and heavy cargo traffic at Delhi where the dispatch can sometimes be delayed by as much as a fortnight,this isnt a very favourable option.

Industry observers feel that though the decision of the airlines was eventually impacted by insufficient passenger traffic,the attitude of authorities wasnt favourable either.

Gunbir Singh,president,CII Punjab,says,In Amritsar,the landing fee of an international flight is Rs 1.54 lakh. This is almost twice of what they pay in Delhi. Then the custom facilities are antiquated. These things,coupled with the fact that these airlines werent getting sufficient business class passengers,led to discontinuation of services. But the horticulture export,which is in a nascent stage,needs all the promotion and help now. It is also looked at as a way to dissuade farmers from growing rice,which is leading to excessive ground water depletion. Farmers who had done well were even inspiring others to grow vegetables.

He cites the case of Raju Bajwa,a progressive farmer based in Taran Taran,who has made quiet a name for himself by exporting green chilies and bitter gourd to European stores. Last year,he had exported orders exceeding Rs one crore but the prospects this year dont look that promising.

A few weeks earlier,the Centre had sent a special team to study the aviation inadequacies at Amritsar airport. It was headed by M S Gill,the incumbent Union Minister of State for Sport and a former Punjab cadre IAS officer. They had a meeting with the exporters and we apprised them of the problems. But no corrective action has been taken so far, says Uppal.