A team of Andhra Pradesh Forest Department’s officials will soon visit Beijing, another Chinese town- Xianyou, Hong Kong and Singapore to hold pre-bid meetings with prospective buyers of seized red sanders logs of about 4,160 metric tonnes to be auctioned in the first phase from September 19 to 26.
As part of raising resources, cash-strapped Andhra Pradesh government has decided to sell in the international market more than 8,500 MTs of red sanders logs seized from smugglers. Red sanders has been included in Appendix-II of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1995 and classified as endangered and placed in the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1997. This is the third since 1995 that India was given permission to export 11, 806 MTs of the seized logs.
A top Forest Department official told The Hindu that an overwhelming response was received for the proposal to sell red sanders in the international market. As many as 246 people, including 76 from China, Japan, Singapore, U.A.E, Nepal and Australia had inspected the logs in seven depots located at Kadapa, Bhakarapet, Tirupati, Udayagiri, Kanigiri, Adurupally and Venkatagiri. Of them, 49 were from China and 16 from Japan. The official attributed the good response to advertisements inserted by the AP government in international newspapers like ‘Financial Times’, ‘South China Morning Post’ ,‘ The Straits Times’ and ‘Khaleej Times’ as also the publicity given by Indian embassies abroad. While the first pre-bid meeting is scheduled to be held at the Forest Department here on September 4, the Forest Department officials would be visiting China and other places from September 7 to 14. The aim was to reach maximum number of purchasers. More people meant more competition and more money. Besides, it was the only way to prevent formation of cartels, the official added. The process of e-tender-cum-e-auction would be conducted for six days between September 19 and 26 in 177 e-lots containing 1,77,877 logs. The e-auction would take place between 12 noon and 3 PM which would be suitable for buyers in Far East as well as Middle East.
The official said that anybody forming a ring would be difficult as the software has been designed to contain an element of surprise.
While the average price in recent auctions held within the country was Rs.7 lakh per metric tonne, it was expected to fetch much higher price in the international market, especially since the timber was in log form.
