By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : South Indians settled in the Middle East will no longer be able to buy their favourite vegetables in locals marts, as vegetable exporters in Kerala have decided to stop exports from midnight Thursday.
The Agricultural Process Food Exporters Association (APFEA) has taken this decision following the huge losses exporters have been suffering on account of the rising rupee.
Speaking to IANS, APFEA official Suresh Mathew said they have been suffering heavily on account of the strengthening of the Indian rupee.
“We had inked supply contracts with our importers in the Middle East way back in 2003. We used to get Rs.44 for one US dollar then. Today we get just Rs.39 to a dollar. We have been demanding a revision from the importers of our products and they are silent. So, the last consignment will leave later in the night and it would be the last,” said Mathew.
Currently, around 85 tonnes of fresh vegetables are exported every day from three Kerala airports.
“Forty percent of this goes to Dubai and the rest to all other Middle Eastern countries. We earn foreign exchange worth Rs.1.70 billion every year,” informed Mathew.
The stopping of exports will affect around 7,000 Kerala farmers, from whom exporters source their vegetables.
“Around 50 percent of the vegetables we export come from Tamil Nadu. Since no vegetable exports take place from other South Indian airports in the scale that happens in Kerala, expatriates in the Middle East will not get their daily supply of Indian vegetables,” said Mathew.