Revenue dips as Markfed export hit by Qatar crisis
JALANDHAR: The ongoing conflict between Qatar and other Gulf countries has hit the business of Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited, or Milkfed, which has seen a decline in export revenue in the past four months.
Export of ready-to-eat productsbranded‘Sohna’earnedrevenueofRs6.8crorefromApril1to December 31, 2017, while the figure stood at Rs 9.8 crore for 2016 for the state agency.
Officials said Dubai is the top consumer among Arab nations and most of the supply goes via Qatar. The Gulf countries are home to 8 million Indians, who are chief consumers of these Indian products .
“The demand of saag and other products is on the rise, but our overall revenue has affected following a conflict between Qatar and other Gulf nations, as supplyhasbeencuttothesecountriesinthelastfourmonths,”said HS Bains, Markfed’s chief manager for international trade.
The four-month data shows this.MarkfedearnedRs2.5crore from export in September to December 2017, as compared to Rs 5.23 crore during the same time in 2016.
It was in June that Saudi Arabia and its key allies Egypt, UAE and Bahrain had cut ties with Qatar over the latter’s alleged support to terrorism.
General manager Sachin Garg, however, said that export to other countries including Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and Italy is on the rise. “We have started exporting saag and some other products to Hong Kong from this year.”
Chairman Amarjit Singh Samra said, “Non-resident Indians, mostly Punjabis, really like our products and the demand is increasing rapidly.”
These items are also available online as Markfed has tied up with online retailer Amazon since March last year.
SAUDI ARABIA AND ITS KEY ALLIES CUT TIES WITH QATAR, THROUGH WHICH MILKFED SUPPLIES TO GULF, OVER ITS ALLEGED SUPPORT TO TERROR