APEDA to focus on fruits, vegetables

With export earnings from basmati and bovine meat — the flagship agricultural and processed export sectors — hitting a plateau, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is exploring newer avenues, Chairman Devendra Kumar Singh said on Wednesday.

According to data available with APEDA, export earnings from agricultural and processed food products have drastically dropped from $21.5 billion in 2014-15 to $16.25 billion in 2016-17, thanks to declining basmati rice and bovine meat exports.

While the export value of bovine meat dwindled from a high of $4.78 billion to $4.07 billion in 2015-16 and $3.93 billion in 2016-17, basmati exports plummeted from $4.52 billion in 2014-15 to $3.23 billion in 2016-17.

Increasing revenues further from these areas is next to impossible because of stringent conditions imposed by importing countries on these products, Singh told a CII seminar on agricultural supply chain here.

“At the same time, if we have to double our farmers’ income by 2022, a good share of it has to come from exports. But doubling export earnings from the agricultural sector in such a short span is an ardent task,” he said.

However, an attempt is being made to identify fruits and vegetables that can be explored for exports. As it has already done with grapes in Nashik, APEDA has identified new clusters in seven states that can be tapped to produce export quality fruits and vegetables, he said. Among the products identified are mangoes, pineapple, pomegranate, banana, rose onion and vegetables. APEDA has already identified clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Telangana and West Bengal.

“We have set a time frame of three years to develop these clusters and accordingly, agreements have been signed with the respective State Governments,” an APEDA official told BusinessLine .

According to Singh, the mandi or wholesale market-based approach will not work when it comes to exports as these perishables have to enter the cold chain at the earliest. “There is a need to get these products to the port within 24 hours of harvesting,” he said.

The APEDA Chairman gave the example of how the authority helped develop infrastructure for the export of grapes from Nashik in the past. “There are pack-houses in 200 villages in and around Nashik. Grapes meant for export reach these pack houses within 3 to 4 hours of harvest and from thereon, the fruits become part of the cold chain,” he said.

APEDA plans to help develop similar infrastructure in these newly identified clusters and will be involved with farmer producer groups for this, he said