Date:12/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/12/stories/2006091213320400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Dubai Flower Centre wooing growers

Special Correspondent

Lobbying hard for using the `Dubai route' to expand floriculture exports

Proposition
The DFC can be the hub for export to Europe

Exporters need not pay any customs duty

Bangalore: The Dubai Flower Centre (DFC), a logistics centre for cool-chain processes, is lobbying hard with growers and traders in India, particularly Karnataka, to use the "Dubai route" to expand floriculture exports, which accounts for less that 0.5 per cent of global exports. Marketing executives from the DFC are in Bangalore to tap the floriculture market here, meeting representatives of the South India Floriculture Association and the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA).

The proposition being put forth is that the DFC is about four hours by air and exporters can make the DFC the hub to export to the Netherlands and other European countries, thus saving time. The DFC is a duty free zone and exporters need not pay customs duty.

DFC Marketing Director Ibrahim Ahli told The Hindu that at present flowers were being exported from India through Frankfurt and then re-exported to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which meant that it took nearly two days for the flowers to reach the destination, bringing down the shelf life by that many days. Now, with the DFC in place, Indian exporters could send it directly to the GCC countries, by paying a five per cent customs duty. They would not have to pay any customs duty if it the flowers were re-exported to other countries from the DFC.

Mr. Ahli said that the DFC would market itself aggressively in India because there was enormous potential for floriculture exports from here. Dubai could be the gateway for Indian exporters, he said. The DFC had a storage capacity of 1,80,000 tonnes with 34,000 sq. m of refrigerated area. The systems were fully automated and consignments could be tracked. Now, India was exporting flowers and fruit mainly to the GCC countries, and this could be streamlined, he said.

Skyline-ICICI offer

Skyline Construction and Housing Pvt. Ltd. is offering a flat 7.99 per cent fixed rate of interest for the first three years and the prevailing floating rate thereafter on housing loans from ICICI Bank on its select premium properties coming up on Bannerghatta Road, Old Madras Road and HRBR Layout here, a company statement said. The offer is valid till September 15.