‘GRI levy may affect Kinnow export’

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Shipping lines are reportedly contemplating to impose General Rate Increase (GRI) from January 1 onwards. In case that happens, it could affect which currently earn 90 to 100 million dollars annually.

Chief Executive Officer, Harvest Trading, Ahmed Jawad estimates that a drastic addition of $1500/40ft will be added on the current tariff of Reefer containers cargo. Kinnow export which faced many issues from the start of season, with the addition of GRI, the cost would increase by around PKR 150,000 on each shipment with the result that kinnow export price will not be competitive with other countries oranges.

Pakistani kinnow is already expensive on the international market due to high input cost and with the addition of these miscellaneous expenses; buyers may cancel the coming two month orders due to price factor. Current year’s production is 20 percent less at 1.8 million tones compared to previous year’s yield of two million tones.

He requested the government to look into this matter seriously in a supportive way, because “if this decision is not reversed or subsidized then we have no choice to delete Indonesia and other key kinnow markets from our mind, because Chinese mandarin already create strong footages with economical prices.”

Kinnow is the only product in Pakistani fruits which currently earns between $90 to 100 million per year for the national kitty. “We should avoid decisions in haste which could affect our country export,” he remarked. Previous year’s citrus fruit’s export goal remained unfulfilled at 225,000 tonnes.

Shipping experts in Karachi said there was no plausible reason for an increase in GRI as there was neither any congestion at the Karachi Port and Port Qasim nor there was any choking of containers.