New Delhi :Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) a statutory body under Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, has stressed on the need of bridging the existing gap between Ministry of commerce and Ministry of commerce to further boost agri exports from the country.
“An integrated approach and better cooperation is needed among the two union ministries for boosting agriculture production and trade increase export of organic food products as well as to double Agri-exports to US $60 billion by 2022 from current US $38 billion” said Paban K Borthakur, Chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA),while speaking at a technical session India organic-From Niche market to main stream organised at ongoing Three day ‘Biofach India ‘ an organic trade fair.
APEDA under Union Ministry of Commerce has been to develop and promote the export of various agricultural commodities and provides a platform to showcase India’s quality produce to the global market. APEDA is also the secretariat for National Programme for Organic production, which provides an institutional support for Accreditation of certification agencies and surveillance and monitoring of organic certification process.
APEDA plays pivotal role in developing the database of the mandated products, markets, services, and distribution of related information to exporters. The authority extends financial assistance under its Agriculture and promotion Plan Scheme for various components like Market Development, Infrastructure Development and Quality Development
India’s domestic agricultural policies are largely aimed at food security and price stabilization and often put export restrictions to control food inflation.
Union Minister of commerce Suresh Prabhu while inaugurating the Organic Trade show had said that Ministry of Commerce had drafted An Agriculture export policy advocated promoting export-oriented clusters and agriculture export zones (AEZs. This will work as key to ensure surplus produce with standard physical and quality parameters which meet export demands.
India exported organic products worth USD 515 million (INR 3453 crore) in the year 2017-18, From USD 370 million (INR 2727 CRORE) in the year 2016-17 thus Registering an increase of 39 per cent . The total volume of export during 2017-18 was 4.58 lakh Metric Tonne,
The organic food export realization was around INR 3453 crore (515 million USD). Organic products are exported to countries such as USA, European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Japan.
People around the globe are getting more conscious of what they are eating. They are switching to organic products as they do not want chemicals in their food. Compared to the overall agriculture export, the share of organic products is less. But the rate of growth is quite impressive.
The major demands under the organic product category are for Oil seeds, Cereals & Millets, Sugar, Fruit juice concentrates, Tea, Spices, Pulses, Dry fruits, Medicinal plant products etc. Though USA, European Union member countries and Canada were the biggest buyers of organic products, many new countries like Israel, Vietnam, Mexico are also taking interest recently. The equivalency granted by European Commission and Switzerland for unprocessed plant products and the conformity assessment granted by USDA has played pivotal role in increased export to these countries.
Major highlight of the Boifach which concluded here today was display of organic products from north East states which is coming up as hub of Indian organic farm products. A variety of organic crops from these states include tea, Joha rice and lemon from Assam, large cardamom and ginger from Sikkim, king chillis from Manipur, sugarcane, cowpea and paddy from Mizoram, passion fruit from Meghalaya and pineapples from Tripura.