As part of its promotion strategy for agri exports, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) proposes to use river names as tag line and branding for Indian agri products.
APEDA is identifying agri products that can be sourced from the Gangetic, Brahmaputra, Cauvery and Godavari river basins, among others, across the country.
“We have an excellent number of unique and distinct agri and food product range, products specific to regions, states and geographical indication (GI) too. APEDA intends to promote and create a niche market and branding of these unique products. In fact, we intend to promote river as a tag line and brand for promotion of Indian agricultural and food products. We want to identify our products with the production centres,” M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, told Business Line on the sidelines of Agriculture Day organised by Hubballi-based Deshpande Foundation.
“We will work out a systematic strategy where the entire country will be covered. Promotion of natural and vegan products also offers uniqueness and identity to producers and farmers as a whole. Value-added and diversified product promotion will be APEDA strategy to strengthen value chain management,” Angamuthu said.
Pitching to overseas restaurants
He said GI-tagged agri products were receiving a good response in overseas markets. “Last year we exported over 101 GI-tagged products and retail chains were keen to display them,” he said.
Angamuthu said APEDA is also working with Indian restaurants to promote agri exports. “There are over 1.5 lakh dedicated Indian restaurants overseas. We intend to promote our agri product through Indian restaurants, not only to our Indian diaspora but also the entire world,” he said.
As of 2022, India exports agri products to over 200 countries as compared to 150 about 10 years ago. India, which is currently the eighth largest exporter of agri products, aims to be among the top five by 2030, he said.
The exports of agri products monitored by APEDA grew 16 per cent to $17.435 billion during April-November in the current financial year, compared to $15.072 billion in the same period last year. APEDA exports stood at $24.74 billion during 2021-22.