New Delhi: Following requests from the Royal Government of Bhutan, the Government of India has granted import permission for potatoes and ginger to help farmers and traders in the neighboring country through June 2023.
India imports most of Bhutan’s cash crop of potatoes. In 2020–2021, New Delhi formally included 12 more Bhutanese agricultural exports, including potatoes, in the Plant Quarantine Order of India, granting these goods official market access. India constructed a new plant quarantine office in Jaigaon in 2020 to promote the trade of agricultural products between the two countries, officials said.
Through the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), India would provide 10,000 litres of nano urea/nano nitrogen fertilizer (liquid) to Bhutan at a special discounted price.
Bhutan will also get 111,000 MT of coal annually via Coal India Ltd (CIL) for the Himalayan country’s coal-dependent industries.
(Venkatesh)
