PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, May 4: More than 50 top trade leaders from various states including Jharkhand at a national meet of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in New Delhi today unanimously decided to lead the working of boosting exports of Indian products to Russia in the wake of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
This is in pursuance of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to boost exports of Indian products to other countries of the world.
This opportunity arises due to sanctions by the European Union, the USA and other countries which is likely to cause a scarcity of essential products in the first instant.
Notably, several Russian buying houses backed by the Russian government have reached out to CAIT for facilitating the procurement of Indian goods to feed the Russian market.
CAIT national secretary Suresh Sonthalia, who represented Jharkhand said that the meeting of top trade leaders of the country elaborately discussed the ample opportunities for trade in Russia.
“The complete trade opportunity that exists as of today in just the FMCG and processed food categories accounts for more than USD 10 billion. The opportunity if we add garments, footwear, pharmaceuticals and other categories is huge,” said Sonthalia.
He further said that all the trade of USA with Russia which is, exports of over $ 5.8 billion has completely stopped and can be easily taken over by India.
Big American and European companies like P&G, Nestle, Unilever and many more have shut down, withdrawn or have been banned.
Similarly, other countries in Europe that have stopped trading with Russia have left a huge gap and a big market for Indian businesses. Russia’s leading individual trading partners were the United States China, the Netherlands, Germany, Belarus, Turkey, Italy, South Korea, and Japan.
Sonthalia said that all this opportunity exists under the Rupee – Ruble trade mechanism which is being very actively set up between the Russian Central Bank and RBI.
To have hassle-free trade flow between the two countries a provision is being made to set- up a Buying/Trading House in India under the aegis of the Russian Banks backed by the Russian Government. This Buying house will operate as a single-window entity for the exporters in India and the importers in Russia.
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