(a) whether there are a number of airports in the country from where fruits and vegetables are imported and exported and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the number of such airports where cold storage facility is available for this purpose;
(c) whether the farmers and traders living in North Maharashtra avail the services for transportation of fruits especially Grapes and Pomegranate to other States and abroad; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
The Minister of State (IC) in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Hardeep Singh Puri)
(a): Fruits and vegetables are imported and exported from 24 airports in the country, namely, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam.
(b): Cold storage facilities for this purpose are available at 24 airports in the country, namely Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy and Visakhapatnam.
(c) and (d): At present the farmers and traders in North Maharashtra are availing services for air transportation of fruit, including grapes and pomegranates, from nearby airports which are suitable for them as per commercial and logistics considerations. For instance, the total tonnage of grapes and pomegranates exported or imported from Mumbai airport was 180 MT in the year 2018-19.