BANGALORE: The commerce ministry is expected to circulate a cabinet note to seek debt relief for coffee growers. It maybe recalled that the coffee board had sent a proposal seeking a waiver to the tune of Rs 505 crore but indications are that this would be for a much higher sum of close to Rs 802 crore, according to Mr Veerappa Moily, the Union law & justice minister.
Mr Moily who was addressing the members of the Karnataka Planters Association (KPA) at the associations 51st annual conference said that while there had been different sums being spoken off, his own assessment (based on which a suggestion had been made to the Union commerce ministry) was placed at Rs 802 crore.
Urging the planter community to stop being diffident he asked them to be prepared for meeting competition head-on notably from Vietnam, in the wake of the recently signed free trade agremeement(FTA) with ASEAN.
“We are committed to fostering trade and the FTA is a product of the Union government's Look East policy launched since the early 1990s. We are sensitive to the needs of various segments of society including those in the plantation industry. The FTA provides for us to employ safe-guards to protect our industry if there is a deluge of cheap imports,” he noted. Under the terms of the FTA, India's import duty on coffee which currently stand at 100% would be brought down by 5% every year over the next 10 years.
Mr Moily said that a brain-storming session with invitees from the planter community, researchers and marketers would be organised soon to evolve a strategy for promoting and making Indian coffee globally competitive.
India with an output of 2.75 lakh tonnes(for coffee year ended October 2009) accounts for less than 5% of the global production.
Source : The Economic Times