Apr 20, 2020
Agriculture, food processing industry, spices, cashew nuts and machine & equipment (M&E) sectors have requested government to grant them permission to open and work with at least 25-30% of its strength.
Knockout by the virus-borne lockdown, agricultural industry has become impatient to restart its operation, even though at a significantly lower capacity. The representatives of industries relating to agriculture, food processing, spices, cashew nuts, and machine & equipment (M&E) sectors have requested permission to open and operate on at least 25-30 per cent strength, narrated a statement by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
The industry representatives have also given their assurance and promised to maintain proper health measures while working. The dialogue took place between Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, DACFW secretary Sanjay Agarwal and the exporters of Agri and Allied commodities via video conference. The aim of the dialogue was to discuss and arrive at a decision of the issues affecting the sector due to lockdown.
According to the sources, the exporter of agri commodities have raised issues related to availability and movement of labour, inter-state transport bottlenecks, shortage of raw materials due to closure of market and mandis, phytosanitary certification, non- functionality of courier services thereby hampering movement of shipping documents, unavailability of freight services, no-entry in ports or yards and no possibility of clearance of goods for imports and exports purpose.
Commenting on the issues, Sanjay Agarwal said, “The issues pertaining to port, ocean freight services, and courier services will be considered for necessary resolution and the request for opening the industry and sector-specific issues will be taken up with the Agriculture Minister. India’s agro-exports have always kept the sector in a trade surplus as the country exports a good amount of agricultural & allied Commodities”.