Retaliation: India stops vegetable exports to Pakistan

Amritsar-based vegetable exporters refuse to send trucks carrying tomatoes and other vegetables via land route.

AMRITSAR: In a retaliatory move against a ban on export of onions to India through land route, Amritsar-based vegetable exporters on Friday refused to send trucks carrying tomatoes and other vegetables to Pakistan via Attari-Wagah land route.

“Today (Friday), we will not export vegetables to Pakistan because the Pakistani government has put a ban on onion exports to India,” Indian media quoted vegetable trader Anil Mehra as saying.

This decision was taken by about 40 vegetable exporters based in Amritsar. He said that the traders were not bothered about losses which they would suffer after stopping exports of vegetables to Pakistan.

Vegetable exporters stopped around 70 trucks carrying tomatoes, ginger and chillies and these vehicles did not go for customs clearance.

“So far, no truck carrying vegetables has crossed over to Pakistan through land route, though five to six trucks with soybean (animal feed) have moved to the neighboring country,” a senior official of the customs department in Amritsar said.

India is a major supplier of vegetables to Pakistan. Of total exports via land route, 30-32 per cent comprises tomatoes while soybean has a share of 55 per cent. Other items includes chillies, ginger, potatoes, capsicum, biscuits and raw cotton.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2011.