Ambassador: Indian set quota for staple goods is same as imports of past three years

Maldivian Ambassador to India, Ahmed Mohamed, has said that the reduced quota of staple goods from India would not cause any difficulties in the Maldives. 

Talking to Sun Media today, Ambassador Ahmed Mohamed, said that the current government of the Maldives has a policy of diversifying trade sources and as a result, the country would not become dependent on one country. 

Ambassador Mohamed made the remarks after news surfaced that India has decided to reduce the quota of staple goods exported to the Maldives. In response to that, the Maldivian Ambassador said that the trade agreement made between India and the Maldives in 1981 states that India would be providing the staple goods required by the Maldives. He said that India has not reduced the quota lower than the imports of the past three years by the Maldives. 

Statistics on the import of staple goods show 20,748.70 tons of flour imported to the Maldives in 2017 and 116.66 tons came from India. And 24,824.64 tons of rice was imported of which 23,560.03 tons was imported from India along with 5,466.68 tons of potato out of 6,001.80 tons of total imported potato. 

The statistics on the import of eggs show 155,739,145 eggs imported in to the Maldives and 112,714,160 eggs came from India along 27.36 tons of grain out of the total import of 1548.71 tons of grain. 

The Indian quota for the Maldives for the next year is 346.21 tons of flour, 24.581.03 tons of rice and 338.47 tons of sugar along with 5308.70 tons of potato, 3832.03 tons of onion, 111,809,090 eggs and 31.59 tons of other grains. 

Ambassador Ahmed Mohamed said that the statics show that the quota said for the Maldives by India is for the amount of staple foods required by the Maldives. 

He said that there would be no changes in the prices of these foods despite some politicians claiming that this quota will elevate prices and the Maldives would not have any difficulties in getting food. 

The main economic and trade policies of the governmnet include strengthening the economic foundation and a policy of diversification of import sources according to Ambassador Ahmed Mohamed.