The impact of global trade recession seems to have its adverse impact on the functioning of the two ports in Kakinada during the current financial year. The government-run age old Anchorage Port and the private-run Deepwater Port being maintained by the Kakinada Seaports Limited (KSPL) have witnessed a plunge in the export activity this year, as compared to the past few years. Though there is no problem of non-availability of material or any technical snag, both the ports witnessed a slowdown in the exports owning to global reasons.
The KSPL that registered total cargo handling to the tune of 17.9 million tonnes in the fiscal 2014-15 has slashed its expected cargo handling during the current fiscal to 15.5 metric tonnes. The port, however, is banking majorly on imports, as major chunk of the exports – the foodgrains – is being taken care of by the Anchorage port.
“Exports are not so encouraging this year. Though the local market is good, the international trade recession is taking its pie from the local exports,” observes M. Jacob, general manager of the KSPL. Since rice formed a major part of the basket of commodities being exported from the city, the drop in exports has a cascading effect on the rice market and the farmers are unable to get a fetching price to their produce.
The Anchorage Port that is solely dependent on exports with special reference to rice has been feeling the heat this year due to the sudden slowdown in the exports of foodgrains. For the last five years, the exports from this port have been above 30 lakh tonnes and a major chunk of its exports are the rice varieties.
Most of the rice from here is being sent to African counties and exporters are getting a betting pricing for the produce in the international market.
“Now, many players entered the export market and the buyers got a chance to choose the exporter of their choice. Coupled with this trend, the slump in the global market too is contributing to the drop in exports in general and rice exports in particular this year,” explains Dantu Surya Rao, chairman of the Cocanada Chamber of Commerce.
