Exporters of grapes from Nashik have stressed the need for the growers to lay greater emphasis on its quality. They have also asked the growers to cultivate new export varieties of grapes to capture international market.
The Maharashtra Farmers-Producers Organisation, in association with a private logistics company, organised a workshop on Tuesday. As part of the workshop, experts guided farmers on what they should do to increase the export of grapes.
China is the largest exporter of grapes in the world while India stands on the seventh position. There is good potential for the country to increase the export of grapes if it takes proper measures, said Mahendra Ingle, an expert in grapes export.
"There is a need to cultivate international varieties of table grapes which have a huge demand in the European and non-European countries. Moreover, the size of the fruit needs to be between 16 and 18 mm," he said.
Nashik is a major grapes growing pocket in the country; however, the export of table grapes is only 8% of the total production. Thomson seedless and Flame seedless are the common varieties of table grapes being cultivated in India.
In the recent times, farmers cultivating grapes have introduced new varieties of table grapes like Red Globe, Arra-32, Crimson and Fantasy seedless and Sudhakar. During the corresponding period last year, the district had exported 1,853 containers with 24,763 tonnes of grapes.
