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The Kerala government has sought the intervention of the Union Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Kamal Nath for the protection of traditional plantation sector such as pepper, cardamom, tea, rubber etc in which the state has a sizeable presence. The state Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy presented a memorandum to this effect containing suggestions for Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) to Shri Kamal Nath recently.
The Chief Minister also wanted the Union Government to continue extending export subsidies to rubber without putting a cap on quantity, and asked the Union government to reestablish port restrictions for the import of natural rubber. The state has also requested to include Vanilla in the sensitive crop list of agricultural products for foreign trade. The quality of Indian vanilla is reported to be as good as that grown in Madagascar (which is known to grow good quality vanilla) and it is estimated that India earns Rs. 650 crore every year as foreign exchange by the export of vanilla. Kerala has been a leading producer of this crop and it has requested the intervention of the Commerce Ministry to prevent price fluctuation due to alleged malpractices such as mixing of low quality imported vanilla with the high quality Indian variety.
Agreeing with Shri Oommen Chandy on the need for price stabilization of pepper in the market, Shri Kamal Nath informed that the Union Government had already stopped the import of pepper through the advance licensing scheme and would consider further measures to tighten imports.
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