Indian potatoes and tomatoes for flood ravaged Pakistan
By IANSWednesday, August 25, 2010
JAMMU - Floods in Pakistan have created a huge demand for potatoes and tomatoes from India and traders on this side of the Line of Control (LoC) have begun supplying these vegetables on the Poonch-Rawalakote cross-LoC route.
Official sources said 24 trucks laden with potatoes and tomatoes worth more than Rs.9 million were sent Tuesday after traders from Pakistan-administered Kashmir asked for the vegetables to meet the growing demand there.
“Their demand is quite high and it’s difficult for us to meet this demand,” Satish Chander Gupta, one of the traders told IANS.
One-fifth of Pakistan is faced with acute floods. Most of its crop land has come under water.
“We are aware of this problem and we will try to export as much as is possible,” said an official of the agriculture department.
The cross-LoC Poonch-Rawalakote route was opened in October 2008.
Meanwhile, heavy rains in the Valley and other potato-growing areas in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in Doda and Ramban districts in the Jammu region, have damaged the crop.
