HYDERABAD: Decks have been cleared for the auction of red sanders seized by the Andhra Pradesh forest department.
The AP government on Friday issued a GO to enable auctioning of red sanders logs by calling for global tenders. The AP Forest Development Corporation will be the nodal agency for the global auction. The government will follow e-auction method for selling the logs.
The state government has engaged the services of MSTC Ltd. for conducting sale of red sanders through e-tender cum e-auction. The state government had also constituted an Auction Team to co-ordinate the auction process of red sanders.
The Director General of Foreign Trade has accorded permission to the AP government to export 8585 Metric Tonnes of red sanders from the stock available with the state.
The Centre has given permission for auctioning the red sanders in 2013, but the state government failed to take any decision then. Now, a total of 8,585 metric tonnes of red sanders logs will be auctioned.
The base price has been fixed at Rs 7 lakh per MT for non-grade, Rs 8 lakh for C grade, Rs 10 lakh for B grade, and Rs 12 lakh for A grade.
For the disposal of the red sanders in the International market in a transparent way by inviting global tenders, a tender committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of special chief secretary, Environment, Forests, Science & Technology department to work out the modalities including finalizing of the tender document.
Red sanders is widely grown in Chittoor, Kadapa and Nellore districts but its sale is controlled by the Central government. Each tonne of red sanders commands a price of Rs 25 lakh in the international market. Red sanders fetches a much higher price in the international market if sold in log form compared to value added product form.
In 2010, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora had put a ban on export of red sanders in any form, and the environment ministry issued instructions in 2011 to all state forest departments to hand over red sanders seized by them to Andhra Pradesh state’s Handicraft Corporation and revised instructions were again issued in 2011 to all the states to handover the seized red sanders to AP.
In 2012 CITES had given permission to export 11,806 MTs of red sanders seized by customs department and other state forest departments including Andhra Pradesh, and which has been renewed during 2013 and 2014.