India loses granite exports market to Brazil

Chennai: India has lost to Brazil in granite exports as Madurai stopped mining exploration since 2012. Industry sources have warned the Centre through the Granite Development Council that if the situation persists the country will lose its global position also to China and Dubai, besides other Asian players.

With about 50 quarries closing operations in Tamil Nadu due to court cases and denial of permission for mining, the state has been losing a revenue of Rs 4,000 crore per year. In the past four years, the country has lost more than Rs 10,000 crore revenue from TN, admitted industry sources associated with the council after submitting a report in this regard to the top brass of the Union ministry of mining.

“Madurai region is the granite hub for the entire Indian granite industry as the region produces 25 colours of granites and now with the production being suspended due to several factors, India has lost its market to Brazil”, said K. Subbha Reddy, vice president, Federation of Indian Granites and Stone Association.  

The only respite to the market is that the policy of Andhra and Telangana has helped to sustain the industry with both the states now earning revenue close to Rs 3,000 crore per year.

The once neglected stones and those considered second in grade have now picked up sales. Rajamundry white, Madanapalli white and Vizhag whites are the brands that are now helping the market and the present situation in TN has affected about 25,000 people associated with mineral industry, Reddy said adding TN has the maximum number of granite colours in the country, ranging up to 35.

Both Tamil Nadu private players and Tamin have established their credentials as an exporter of International repute catering to United States, Japan, China and UK but now the supplies have gone down. If the trend continues, we will lose our global customers and will be hard to compete with foreign countries, said Rajasekharan, president, Madurai Granite Association.

“There is no proper transparent policy all these years. We were treated like industrialists and now we are booked like criminals for exploiting the resources”, lamented a granite exporter of Tirunelveli

Meanwhile, sources in the Industries department admitted that revenue of the state by exporting minerals has drastically dipped by one third and added the low VAT fixed by Rajasthan  had also started draining the earnings of state run Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd.