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June 26 to July 2 : Weekly News Magazine
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SOCIETY

Recession

is here

Unlike Mumbai, no hordes of brightly uniformed bedecked registered looms. The export basket has a bit of horticulture as well.
young women are seen protesting over their pink slips in Almonds, walnuts, saffron from Kashmir and apricots from Kargil are
Srinagar. But over the last few months, hundreds have lost the chief export items. Interestingly, all these items are witnessing a
jobs and many more are waiting for the last instalments of the fall in foreign earnings even though the quantum of exports has
wages they earn as weavers, dyers, dryers and cleaners. increased.
“For an export volume of 31436 metric tones in 2006-07 our
White man’s liquidity crunch has triggered a crisis in Kashmir’s earnings were Rs. 155.52 crores. But in 2007-08 when the volume
disorganised export sector that incidentally is around Rs 1200 went up to 44606 metric tones the earnings were only Rs. 77.38
crores strong. “Many tiny units in the cottage sector have closed crores,” an official in Horticulture department said. The trend had
down and many more are expecting in coming days,” says Naseer started well before the slowdown crept in. From Rs. 122.54 crores in
Ahmad Shah, a handicraft exporter. 2004-05, the agricultural exports touched Rs. 156.55 crores in 2005-
06 only to dip to Rs. 155.52 crores in 2006-07 and to an all time low of
J&K’s export basket mainly contains handicrafts. In the last financial Rs. 77.38 crores in 2007-08, according the state’s Horticulture
year, officials say, the handicraft exports stood at Rs 887 crores with Planning and Marketing department’s outpost in Delhi. (See details
hand-made carpets making the most. The carpets, a Kashmir on Index page)
specialty, have a small high-end market mostly in the West and The government is yet to collate the export data for the current
Middle East. financial year but the trend is not encouraging. Walnut is hit hard. EU
Shah says he is frustrated. “All the exporters have their capital that was consuming almost two-third of walnut from Kashmir reports
blocked as there are no sales,” he said. “Whoever is buying a demand of barely 10 percent now. Reason: USA, world’s largest
handicrafts chooses the low-cost that Kashmir does not make.” walnut producer, hit by recession in its domestic markets has
With dried up sales, the currency cycle has taken a hit. “We have no exported nuts to EU countries at one-third of the price. This has dried
money to pay the suppliers and they are unable to pay the artisans up the demand for Kashmir exports. Saffron is the only commodity
as a result of which lot of people are thinking of switching over to that is better placed this year. It is because of crop failure in Iran, the
other trades to keep their hearths burning,” says Shah. This, Shah major Saffron producer, and a low yield back home.
says, is a adding to the crisis. “We are already face to face with the Traders however say the horticulture sector will sail through despite
problem of artisans’ families opting for non-handicraft trades. If the its problems as in items like walnut the demand is consistent though
global meltdown forces the artisans to leave handicrafts we may prices are not as encouraging in the domestic market. “The real
lose a huge craft that over the ages has emerged part of our identity.” crisis is in handicrafts”, says Dr Mubin Shah, president Kashmir
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
A globetrotter, Shah is busy meeting artisans and policy makers to KCCI has met almost all the policy makers in the state to find a way
manage a way out. Before the global recession could hit the pout, but the responses are not encouraging. So far J&K Bank has
handicraft sector, terror attacks in Mumbai had already dented acknowledged the problem probably because it has most of its
carpet industry as foreign arrivals dwindled. Though handicrafts are investments within the state and stabilising the economy will help it
totally dependent on exports, it provides livelihood to tens of to sustain its growth story. “We are aware of the problem,” Tafazul
thousands of people within Srinagar and its peripheries. Around 350 Hussain, a top executives of the bank said. “We are working on a
thousand people, mostly artisans, are engaged in this sector in livelihood product that will help artisans to sustain the crisis triggered
Kashmir, of which carpets alone employs 150,000 in 30,000 by the meltdown”.