Home BusinessDubai crisis may impact marginally farm items export, say traders
Exporters of major farm items today said India is not completely immune to the financial concerns in Dubai and there could be marginal impact on trade.
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India is a major exporter of basmati rice, onion, spices like chilli, cardamom, cumin and ginger, and wheat flour to Dubai. Exporters said that since a large number of Indians are living there and other West Asian countries, any economic crisis there could have some impact, if not much.
The crisis has been triggered by fears that Dubai"s conglomerate, Dubai World, may default on its about $59 billion debt because of a slump in real estate.
"The crisis may affect volume of basmati rice export to Dubai a bit but the impact won"t be much. We are adopting a wait-and-watch policy now and will see how things unfold," All India Rice Exporters" Association Executive Director Jai Oberoi said.
The country exported 1.56 million tonnes of basmati to Dubai in the 2008-09 fiscal, compared with 1.18 million tonnes a year earlier.
"The crisis won"t affect onion exports much, as Dubai has reduced its dependence on Indian onion and has been importing from Pakistan significantly for the last 3-4 months," a senior official with Nafed, which oversees onion export, said.
As much as 1.35 lakh tonnes of onions were exported to Dubai in the last fiscal, he added.