Con­tainer short­age threatens India’s mango exports

NEW DELHI: A short­age of refri­ger­ated con­tain­ers (reefers) caused by the West Asia war is wor­ry­ing Indian grow­ers of man­goes ahead of the peak export sea­son, accord­ing to five people aware of the devel­op­ment.
With the war in its second month, key mari­time routes, includ­ing the Strait of Hor­muz and the Red Sea, have been dis­rup­ted, lead­ing to con­tainer short­ages and higher freight costs. Many con­tain­ers are stuck in transit due to con­ges­tion or are being re-routed, lead­ing to longer ship­ment cycles.
This poses a unique prob­lem for India, which pro­duces 20.68 mil­lion tonnes, or 44%, of the world’s man­goes annu­ally, the most by any coun­try. India has been try­ing to increase exports of the king of fruits vis-a-vis China, which ships out more man­goes, includ­ing Indian vari­et­ies such as Dash­eri, Chausa, Alphonso and Lan­gra.
The UAE is India’s top mango export des­tin­a­tion. The Gulf coun­tries includ­ing Saudi Ara­bia, Kuwait and Qatar together account for 40-45% of India’s total mango exports. Trade involving all these coun­tries has been dis­rup­ted by Iran’s block­ade of the Strait of Hor­muz.
Refri­ger­ated con­tain­ers are crit­ical for trans­port­ing per­ish­able com­mod­it­ies such as man­goes, which need to be stored at tem­per­at­ures of 11-18°C to main­tain qual­ity. However, delays and dif­fi­culties in repos­i­tion­ing con­tain­ers have made it harder for Indian export­ers to secure adequate capa­city.
Refri­ger­ated con­tainer charges went up by about $1,000 in March. Addi­tion­ally, refri­ger­ated con­tainer charges now include a $4,000 levy—about four times the usual freight cost to West Asia—mak­ing exports eco­nom­ic­ally unvi­able.
Export­ers said delays in get­ting reefers could lead to spoil­age and fin­an­cial losses, espe­cially for premium vari­et­ies such as Alphonso, Kesar and Ban­ganap­alli,
which are in high demand. A pro­longed dis­rup­tion could affect export volumes and earn­ings, while also impact­ing farm­ers who depend on over­seas mar­kets for bet­ter price real­iz­a­tion.
“Any decline in pur­chas­ing power, trade dis­rup­tions, or diver­sion of ship­ping routes in the Gulf dir­ectly impacts Indian export­ers at their most vul­ner­able point. We cur­rently have 260 tonnes of mango orders in hand for Gulf coun­tries, but there is uncer­tainty over how they will be ful­filled amid the war,” said Nadeem Sid­diqui, a mango exporter in Amroha, Uttar Pra­desh.
Source : Pressreader