“The government has also drafted a new national agriculture export policy to support the export of organic products. The policy has been jointly prepared by the ministries of commerce, agriculture, and food processing,” said Suresh Prabhu, minister of commerce and industry and railways, Government of India, inaugurating Biofach 2018, India’s leading trade fair dedicated to the organic food sector.
The three-day event, which commenced in New Delhi recently, was jointly organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Nurnberg Messe India.
“The commerce ministry will also set up a series of centres in states to help organic farmers to brand and sell products in the international market, where the demand for such products is high,” Prabhu said.
“India produces about 600 million tonne of agricultural and horticultural products annually. The new agriculture policy has been unveiled with the vision to double the farmers' incomes and increase the share of agricultural exports from present about $30 billion to over $60 billion by 2022,” he added.
“The policy will also help in checking food and vegetable wastage, which is about 30 per cent at present, by increasing exports and increasing food processing,” Prabhu said.
“The government is also in touch with various countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and other countries to increase export of agriculture products to these countries as they need to import large quantity of food products,” he added.
“The ministry of commerce is also in touch with China for the export of rice and pharmaceuticals from India, and after a long period, the first consignment of rapeseed will be exported to China soon,” Prabhu said.
“The agriculture export policy has pitched for the greater involvement of states, improvement in infrastructure and logistics, and promotion of research and development (R&D) activities for new product development for the upcoming markets,” the minster added.
“Over 5,000 delegates, comprising exporters, processors, the retail chain industry, certification bodies and producers from India and abroad are participating in Biofach 2018, the trade fair-cum-exhibition to discuss and have first-hand feel of the Indian organic products, including tea, spices, honey, basmati rice, coffee, cereals, dry fruits, vegetables, processed foods and medicinal plants,” said Paban K Borthakur, chairman, APEDA, on the occasion.
“The major highlight of the Biofach 2018 is APEDA has set up an Organic Theme Pavilion, having a direct display of items and to provide direct business opportunity to India organic food product producers with visiting international buyers through B2B and B2S meets,” he added.
“APEDA has invited and sponsored over 50 buyers from important importing countries for direct market linkages of producers with international trade,” stated Borthakur.
“The demand for organic agri products produced is on constant increase worldwide, as organic products are grown under a system of agriculture without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides,” he added.
“As on March 31, 2018, the total area under organic certification process [registered under the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)] was 3.56 million hectare (2017-18),” Borthakur said.
“This includes 1.78 million ha (50 per cent) cultivable area and another 1.78 million hectare (the remainder) for wild harvest collection,” he added.
Borthakur said, “Among all the states, Madhya Pradesh has covered largest area under organic certification, followed by Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. During 2016, Sikkim had achieved a remarkable distinction of converting its entire cultivable land (over 76,000ha) under organic certification,” the chairman said.
“India produced around 1.70 million metric tonne (MT) (in 2017-18) of certified organic products which includes all varieties of food products, namely oil seeds, sugarcane, cereals and millets, cotton, pulses, medicinal plants, tea, fruits, spices, dry fruits, vegetables, coffee, etc. The production is not limited to the edible sector, but also produces organic cotton fibre and functional food products,” he added.
“Among the states, Madhya Pradesh is the largest producer, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In terms of commodities, oil seeds are the single largest category, followed by sugar crops, cereals and millets, fibre crops, pulses, medicinal, herbal and aromatic plants and spices and condiments,” Borthakur said.
“The total volume of export during 2017-18 was 4.58 lakh MT. The organic food export realisation was around Rs 3,453.48 crore ($515.44 million). Organic products are exported to the United States, the European Union (EU), Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand and Japan,” he added.
“India exported organic products worth Rs 30 billion (over $440 million) in 2017-18, from Rs 24.77 billion in 2016-17. The major demands under the organic product category are for flax seeds, sesame and soybean; pulses such as arhar (red gram), chana (pigeon pea), and rice, along with tea and medicinal plants,” Borthakur said.
“EU member countries were the biggest buyers of organic products from There is a growing demand from Canada, Taiwan and South Korea in recent years. Germany is one of the biggest importers of Indian organic products. Now, many new countries are also taking interest,” he added.
