Demonetisation hits buffalo meat exporters

STRICT CONTROLS: Exporters find the withdrawal limit of Rs.50,000 per week inadequate. 

Commerce ministry to discuss impact with exporters from all sectors

With the demonetisation exercise severely hitting their operations, meat exporters have asked the government to lift curbs on cash withdrawal and related transactions to help them pay the traders as well as small and marginal farmers from whom they purchase buffaloes for slaughter.

The All India Meat & Livestock Exporters Association (AIMLEA), in a representation to the commerce ministry, complained that the withdrawal limit of Rs.50,000 a week from the current account was not enough for these exporters to pay the entire chain of people – including traders (middlemen who purchase the buffaloes from farmers) and subsistence farmers - for the bovines, official sources said. They added that AIMLEA wants cash withdrawal and transaction curbs to be either done away with or eased. The commerce ministry has forwarded the representation to the finance ministry for further action. According to the AIMLEA, farmers who sell the bovines are mostly poor and without any bank account, and therefore, they are paid in cash, which they in turn use for activities including purchasing seeds and fertilisers and running their households. The buffalo meat sector in the country is largely unorganised. The regulators for the sector include the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority that falls under the commerce ministry’s jurisdiction as well as the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (under the health & family welfare ministry).