The Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee located in Vashi told that 140 tonnes mangoes have been shipped from Mumbai on Saturday (4th April 2020) for the markets in the Middle East, restoring the export of essential commodities via sea route.
The export of essential commodities like vegetables and fruits, which takes place through sea routes, bounced back to near-normal levels with the mango consignment to the Middle East. Not only this, the arrival of mangoes is also increasing at the markets. But, exports via air is yet to start on a large scale as exporters wait for government’s decision on subsidies to get relief for the cargo freight rates that have increased three fold since Coronavirus outbreak.
After the Centre announced nationwide lockdown & stopped movement of passenger trains and flights, export of vegetables and fruits had almost stopped. But now, the export that takes place via sea route has started and is about 70 to 80 percent of the export that was taking place during normal times.
Kaushal Khakkhar, chief executive officer of Kay Bee Exports said that "After the passenger flights came to a halt, the prices of the cargo flights & the passenger flights which have been converted into freighters, had increased almost three times. And we are expecting the Centre to come out with some kind of support measures to help the exporters with the increased freight costs”.
