Mar 30: The Government has been monitoring export performance including that of agricultural and processed food products in the current financial year i.e. 2022-23 vis a vis 2021-22. No targets have been fixed yet for export for the year 2023-24. During the current financial year (Apr. 2022 – January 2023), the agricultural exports have amounted to USD 43.37 billion, registering an increase of 6.04% over the exports of USD 40.90 billion during the corresponding period of the previous financial year i.e. April 2021 to January 2022. During the financial year 2021-22, India’s agricultural export touched the highest-ever level of USD 50.21 billion.
A rise in agricultural exports improves realisations for farmers and has a positive impact on their income. In order to ensure that the farmers benefit from exports, the Government has launched a Farmer Connect Portal for providing a platform for Farmer Producer Organisations/Companies (FPOs/FPCs) and cooperatives to directly interact with exporters.
The Government has taken several steps at State and District levels to promote agricultural exports. State specific Action Plans have been prepared and State Level Monitoring Committees (SLMCs), Nodal Agencies for agricultural exports and Cluster Level Committees have been formed in a number of States. The Government is utilising the District as an Export Hub (DEH) initiative to achieve the objectives of the Agriculture Export Policy (AEP). Under the DEH initiative, products including agricultural and processed food products with export potential have been identified in all 733 districts across the country. State Export Strategy has been prepared in 28 States/UTs.
The Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is constantly engaged in export promotion activities for agricultural & processed food products and has played an important role. APEDA implements the ‘Agriculture & Processed Food Products Export Promotion Scheme’. Various developmental activities are undertaken and assistance to exporters is provided under different components of the scheme viz. Infrastructure Development, Market Development and Quality Development.
APEDA has also been collaborating with the Indian Missions abroad for participating in various international trade fairs and exhibitions, organising virtual trade fairs, buyer-seller meets and export promotion of GI products. APEDA has also facilitated trial shipments for new products with export potential and for new destinations. To address the issue of stakeholders’ participation in the decision-making process for export promotion activities, the Department of Commerce has established Export Promotion Forums (EPFs) for individual products under the aegis of the APEDA. The EPFs have representation from trade/industry, line ministries/departments, regulatory agencies, research institutes, state governments etc. In all 9 EPFs have been formed for rice, banana, grapes, mango, onion, dairy products, Nutri-cereals, pomegranate and floriculture respectively. APEDA has also played an important role in opening up new markets for agricultural products in the recent past such as Canada, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Portugal, Indonesia, Iran etc. APEDA has been organising capacity building/training programs in the Agri-export clusters and States in association with the State Departments, State Agriculture Universities, and Krishi Vikas Kendras for farmers, farmer-producer organizations (FPOs) and exporters in order to provide export-market linkage to the farmer groups and to facilitate entrepreneurs in becoming prospective exporters. APEDA has also made efforts to establish synergy with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to ensure optimum utilization of resources for the development of agriculture exports.
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