Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) elected S Ramakrishna as Chairman of FFFAI for the period December 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019, at its eighth Executive Committee meeting. AV Vijayakumar, Chairman Elect, FFFAI and Brihanmumbai Custom Brokers Association congratulated Ramakrishna by presenting him with a bouquet of flowers on behalf of the Executive Committee members.

The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the Agriculture Export Policy 2018, aimed to double the income of farmers by 2022. Exports of agricultural products would play a pivotal role in achieving this goal and in order to provide an impetus to them, the Agriculture Export Policy will aim to double agricultural exports and integrate Indian farmers and agricultural products with global value chains. The Cabinet has also approved the proposal for establishment of a monitoring framework at the Centre, with commerce as the nodal department and representation from various ministries, departments, agencies, and representatives of concerned state governments, to oversee the implementation of the new policy.

Allcargo Logistics has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with JNPT and CIDCO, wherein Allcargo will set up the operations, maintenance and management of a skill development centre in Bokadveera, Uran near JNPT. Youth from the underprivileged sections of the society will be provided skill-based training at the centre to boost their employability opportunities in the domestic port and maritime logistics sector. Conceptualised as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKK), a flagship scheme of the Union Government’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), the skill development centres will offer industry-centric training and job skilling initiatives to needy youth across diverse industry verticals like logistics. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is supporting skilling in Sagarmala through its stakeholders including National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), and the flagship scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK).

APM Terminals Pipavav is now connected to ICD Kanpur via train. The new connection has been established by CONCOR. It gives customers an opportunity to connect to the gateway port of Pipavav. The maiden export train that started from ICD Kanpur (JRY) to Port Pipavav in November has been aptly named POLYMER Express, as it was carrying 90 TEUs of polymer for GAIL. The export-loaded train was flagged off by CN Mishra, Deputy Commissioner of Customs and Santosh Kumar Singh, Terminal Manager, ICD Kanpur, on November 13, 2018.

According to the Q3 trade report released by Maersk, India’s containerised trade with the world has grown 10 per cent year-on-year. Increasing competitiveness of Indian exports, coupled with improved demand in various destination countries, has propelled exports to grow at 10 per cent year-on-year. The demand for India-made goods such as vehicles and mechanical appliances, as well as refrigerated cargo such as onions, meat, seafood and pharmaceuticals have driven exports. Simultaneously, imports have risen nine per cent year-on-year, largely dominated by a heavy inflow of paper, metal and white goods. Overall, the containerised market has displayed strength, with far less fluctuation compared to the previous year.

After successful operation of passenger services, Kanpur Airport has got theoretical consent from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to make a cargo terminal at the airport. According to Jameel Khalique, Director, Kanpur Airport, “The goods can be sent up to 10 tonnes from this port. Loading-unloading of goods is expected to start from next financial year.” Under the UDAN scheme, the operation of the Kanpur-Delhi flight started in July this year. After this, the private airlines are providing direct services to Mumbai and Kolkata. A lot of business opportunities will be created after the start of the cargo service in view of tremendous potential in the field of trade and industry. In view of import-export data from Kanpur, it was decided to build a cargo terminal at the Kanpur Airport.

The fourth PHD Air Cargo Summit was held on November 20 in New Delhi. Here, industry experts deliberated on measures that would enable a continued double-digit growth for air cargo. Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Government of India, declared that new Integrated Logistics and Air Cargo Policy is on anvil. He said, “With this new policy in place, the solutions to critical issues relating to agriculture and manufacturing output and their supplies, including exports, would be sufficiently explored, though the possibilities of making improvement in such an integrated policy still exist even in future.”

GMR Group-led Delhi International Airport (DIAL) has registered one million tonne cargo between November 2017 and October 2018, and also handled the highest-ever monthly air cargo tonnage of 100,091 MT in a single month (October 2018). This has placed IGIA’s cargo handling at the 28th position globally, making it the only Indian airport to be among the top 30. Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, Chief Executive Officer, DIAL, says, “Delhi airport has been recognised as India’s air cargo gateway for its handling capacity, efficient processes, and service standards.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently dedicated the multimodal terminal on River Ganga to the nation and received the first containerised cargo that had sailed from Haldia port, at Varanasi. Commenting on this landmark journey, Sudip Dey, Vice Chairman, FFFAI, said, “The recently-inaugurated multimodal terminal on National Waterway-1 (NW-1) for transporting containerised cargo between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Haldia port in West Bengal is expected to provide a significant push to ex-im trade from eastern India, especially from Kolkata and its catchment areas. It is also expected that in the months to come, Haldia port would be able to strengthen its position as a viable transhipment port in the South East Asia region, thanks to burgeoning and potential trade transactions between India and Bangladesh through multimodal connectivity, where this port would play a pivotal role.”

Jet Airways has entered global record books for the highest uplift of cargo by an Indian carrier in a single flight. The airline uplifted 45 tonnes of cargo on one of its flights on the Mumbai-London sector operated by a B777-300ER aircraft. The record is globally significant as only two other international carriers have previously operated a flight each with a cargo complement of over 40 tonnes on a Boeing777-300 aircraft. The cargo comprised of product mix including perishables (fruits and vegetables), engineering goods, garments, courier, leather goods and consolidation cargo. Pradeep Kumar, Senior Vice President, Jet Airways Cargo, said, “Air cargo is a vital part of the business at Jet Airways and this milestone is testament to our dedicated focus of growing cargo revenues, which has recorded a CAGR of more than 15 per cent in the past three years.”