Israel-Iran war halts Namakkal egg exports; daily loss estimated at Rs 550 million

Namakkal/Trish: Egg exports from Namakkal have come to a standstill due to the ongoing Israel-Iran war, with exporters estimating total losses of around Rs 5 crore per day.Namakkal is one of India’s major egg production and trading hubs and regularly supplies large quantities of eggs to overseas buyers. But conflict in the Middle East makes it difficult for exporters to meet commitments and manage inventories.

Exporters said exports to Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar have been halted. Dr PV Senthil, general secretary of Namakkal Egg Exporters, Livestock and Agricultural Farmers Trade Association, told TOI: “The closure of seaports and restriction of airspace has disrupted normal movement of goods and blocked logistics routes.” He added that as transportation channels are cut off, they are unable to send perishable goods such as eggs, thereby increasing the risk of corruption and exacerbating losses across the supply chain from procurement to packaging and freight.Aiswarya Giri Rajkumar, CEO of Kaveri’s Bio Proteins Private Limited, a table egg export company, said at least 10 million eggs are exported to various countries in the Middle East every day. “The whole egg export business stopped on March 1, the day after the war started,” she said.Egg consumption has dropped sharply in Namakkal. The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), the egg rate-fixing committee, on Tuesday fixed the egg rate at Rs 4.30 per egg. A senior NECC official said the demand for eggs dropped after the state government stopped procuring eggs for the school lunch scheme as the annual examinations began. He added that poultry farms store large quantities of eggs.Poultry farmer K Selvaraj alleged that egg traders were fishing in troubled waters. He said traders are asking poultry farmers to sell eggs at a price of 80 paise less than the NECC price. “To avoid huge losses, poultry farmers are forced to sell an egg at Rs 3.50. The production cost of an egg is Rs 4.50,” he said.Exporters urged the central government to intervene immediately. They asked the government to discuss the issue with the United States, Israel and Iran through diplomatic channels to facilitate the safe passage of ships carrying essential goods.Vegetable exports affectedThe conflict in the Middle East has affected vegetable and fruit exporters in Trichy. Dozens of exporters in the region are preparing to shift goods to the UAE and Qatar as flights to the Middle East from Trichy International Airport were canceled for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday.Trichy Airport handles an average of 600 tons of cargo per month, which averages about 20 tons per day. The majority of exports of vegetables, fruits and flowers are flown to Singapore, while a sizeable number of exporters are equally focused on the Middle East, primarily targeting the destinations of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah for the Indian expatriate. “Exports to Singapore continue, but exports to the UAE are affected, as are exports to European markets using Dubai as a transit point. There is no other cost-effective option for us,” G Sathish Kumar, secretary of the Trichy Import-Export Federation, told TOI.