Our Bureau

Kakinada , Dec. 5

THE Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEAI) is keen on reviving rice bran exports from the Kakinada anchorage port. The association will support local traders for that purpose, said Mr A.R. Sharma, the National President of SEAI.

At a meeting with trade representatives, shippers and other officials from the Cocanada Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Monday, Mr Sharma said that until the nineties, the anchorage port depended mostly on exports of rice bran and other solvent extractions such as soya.

However, in recent years, rice bran exports from the port had dwindled, and have now come to a halt. "The SEAI is willing to send a trade delegation abroad to identify the problems and initiate the necessary steps to revive bran exports from here," he said. Mr Sharma said that rice bran oil, which is highly nutritive, should be promoted in a big way in the country.

"Only then competitive, cost-effective export of de-oiled bran becomes possible," he said.

Mr D. Surya Rao, the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that with the halt in rice bran exports from the anchorage port, exports of other extractions had also dwindled.

"Only if we take the necessary steps to revive rice bran exports, can we get the other extractions as well," he pointed out.

Mr Surya said that a number of edible oil refineries had come up here in the last few years. Kakinada, has risen to the third place in the import of edible oils, after Kandla, Mumbai and JNPT. Earlier, a delegation of the SEAI visited edible oil refineries and other facilities at the Kakinada port and expressed satisfaction.

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