India: Vegetable flights to Gulf help airport hit cargo record

Mangaluru International Airport logged a record 649 tons of cargo handling in June this year, most of it being perishables. Cargo handling at the airport began just five years ago. In June 2018, the cargo terminal handled 649.5 tons of goods, a majority of them being vegetable and fruits airlifted to Gulf countries.

However, industries in the coastal region are yet to make use of this facility. Interestingly, most of the vegetable and fruits that fly to energy-rich countries are procured from and packed in Kerala and sent through MIA to the Gulf. These include small onions, gourds, bananas, pineapples, papayas, mangoes, and amla.

Cargo manager KA Sreenivasan says cargo numbers, especially for fruits and vegetables supplied to the Gulf, picked up after the Qatar crisis. He said the tonnage had dropped in May due to the Nipah scare in Kerala, but improved again in June.

The exports facility at the airport commenced in 2013 and in the first year, exports stood at 116.6 tons. The figure improved to nearly 339 tons in 2014-15 while in 2015-16, it rose to nearly 474 tons.

Over 748 tons were imported in 2016-17 and the figure rose to 2,251 tons in 2017-18. In the first three months of 2018-19, exports stood at 1,068.3 tons.

Despite having a cargo facility, the Glenwood Guardian reports that industries in the coastal regions have not made extensive use of it.