Sujjiv Jain, general secretary of the Jammu Kashmir Walnut Exporters Association, said exporters had lost 250 million rupees (five million dollars) in orders since the war began.

"As soon as the Bush administration declared war against Iraq we received cancellation orders from our buyers," he said.

He said the demand for walnuts from countries including the Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Greece, Italy, as well as Egypt, Kuwait and Dubai, had declined abruptly in the past few weeks.

A kilogram of walnut kernels in the international market fetches three times the price in India, he said.

Kashmir produces 86,263 tonnes of walnuts each year and at least 60 percent of these are exported, Jain said. Last year 120 million rupees worth of walnuts were exported to Europe.

"20,000 people in this state eke out their living from production of walnut. Any loss on the export market will have direct bearing on the growers," he said.

"Our fruit is carried in containers through the Suez canal and in case the canal gets blocked owing to the ongoing war in Iraq, we may face bigger losses," Jain said.

The Kashmir state government recently took steps to increase walnut production in the next three years.

Abdul Aziz Zargar, state minister for agriculture, said the government was focussing on increasing the production of walnuts because the fruit was not as perishable as apples or cherries, two other exports from Kashmir.

SPACE.WIRE