BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

IMPORTS

The chief articles of import in the district are cloth, iron and steel goods, building materials, grocery, stationery goods, drugs and medicines, implements and appliances, hardware, rice, wheat, chillis, betel-nuts, spices, tobacco and other useful and miscellaneous articles, e.g., metal utensils, crockery etc.

Amravati district, because of its position and transport facilities, is a distributing centre for the adjoining areas of Vidarbha, Marathwada, etc. A number of wholesale merchants, trade at Amravati in cotton, hardware, grains, etc.

The district has a rich land which yields a variety of crops. The main agricultural commodities produced in the district are cotton, jowar and groundnut. It also imports these grains from other districts to supplement its production. Wheat is brought to Amravati from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh; grain from Madhya Pradesh, Raiasthan and Punjab and groundnut from Saurashtra. Amravati has a negligible production of rice and imports it from Madhya Pradesh. Tobacco is brought from Gujarat and Kanpur and besides the district, is distributed in Chanda, Yeotmal, Betul and Wardha. Chillis come from Nag-pur, spices from Orissa and Malabar and betel-nuts from Ratnagiri.

The spinning and weaving mills at Badnera and Achalpur consume only a fraction of the cotton assembled at Amravati. The district depends on imports for cloth. Large quantities of mill-cloth from Bombay. Ahmedabad and Sholapur, saris from Ichalkaranji, Malegaon, Nagpur. Madurai, etc., are assembled at Amravati. The wholesale cloth merchants at Amravati have formed a trade association. They carry operations in Vidarbha districts, Betul, Bilaspur, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Marathwada region.

Stationery articles and hooks are brought from Bombay and Nagpur. Paper mainly conies from Titaghar. Presentation articles come from Delhi and Mysore; provision and toilet arti-cles mainly from Bombay; cutlery from Akoia, Bombay and Nagpur and footwear and leather goods from Kanpur, Calcutta and Bombay. Hardware is brought from Bombay and Ludhi-ana. Ayurvedic medicines are brought from Panvel, allopathic drugs come mainly from Baroda and Bombay.

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