More measures sought to curb arecanut import

BL reports

The notification issued by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on Wednesday allowing only one port in the country - New Mangalore Port - to import arecanut will help the sector monitoring imports of the commodity and its movement better.

Though the measure to curb the import of the commodity has been well received in the arecanut industry, there is a need to speed up the appointment of a nodal agency to check the quality of the imported commodity and to fix a tariff rate (or floor rate) for imported arecanut. These two measures will help control the import to a great extent and boost domestic market, according officials in the sector.