Kamal Ghorui
NAMAKKAL/TRICHY: Egg exports from Namakkal came to a halt amid the ongoing Israel-Iran war, with exporters estimating a total loss of around Rs 5 crore daily. Namakkal, one of India’s major egg production and trading hubs, regularly supplies large quantities to overseas buyers. But the Middle East conflict has left exporters struggling to meet commitments and manage inventory. Exporters said exports to the Gulf countries, including the UAE, Oman and Qatar, stopped. “The closure of seaports and restrictions in airspace have interrupted normal cargo movement and blocked logistics routes,” Dr PV Senthil, a Namakkal-based egg exporter and the general secretary of the Livestock and Agri Farmers Trade Association, told TOI. He added that with transport channels cut off, they could not dispatch perishable goods like eggs, increasing the risk of spoilage and compounding losses across the supply chain, from procurement to packing and freight. Aiswarya Giri Rajkumar, CEO of table egg exporting company Kaveri’s Bio Proteins Private Limited, said at least 10 million eggs were being exported every day to various Middle East countries. “The entire egg exporting business came to a halt on March 1, a day after the war started,” she said. The table egg rate reduced drastically in Namakkal. The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), the egg rate fixation committee, on Tuesday fixed the rate at Rs 4.30 per egg. A senior official of the NECC said the demand for eggs came down after the state govt stopped procuring eggs for the school noon-meal scheme as annual exams started. A huge volume of eggs were stocked in poultry farms, he added. K Selvaraj, a poultry farmer, alleged that egg traders were fishing in troubled waters. He said traders were asking poultry farmers to sell eggs at 80 paise less than the NECC rate. “The poultry farmers are forced to sell an egg for Rs 3.50 to avoid huge losses. The production cost for an egg stands at Rs 4.50,” he said. Exporters urged the central govt to intervene immediately. They requested the govt to take up the issue through diplomatic channels with the US, Israel and Iran to facilitate safe passage for ships carrying essential commodities. Vegetable exports affected The Middle East conflict has affected vegetable and fruit exporters in Trichy. As flights to Middle East from Trichy international airport was cancelled for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, dozens of exporters in the region are in a fix to move their consignments to the UAE and Qatar. On average, the Trichy airport handles 600 MT of freight every month, averaging around 20 MT per day. Most of the exports, vegetable, fruits, and flowers are flown to Singapore, while a sizable portion of exporters equally focuses on the Middle East region, mostly to Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah destinations targeting the Indian diaspora. “Exports to Singapore are continuing, but UAE-bound exports are affected, so do the exports to the European market with Dubai as a transit. There is no other cost-effective alternative for us,” G Sathish Kumar, secretary, Export Import Federation of Trichy told TOI.
