The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has identified a number of countries with the potential to become great market for the promotion of Indian Agri-products, Dr Angamuthu chairman of APEDA declared in addressing the release of the FICCI-YES bank’s Knowledge Report on Enhancing Competitiveness of Indian Agri Exports. “We are currently handling surplus in supply systems. This supply-side surplus needs to be leveraged in a way so that our farmers and producers get regular income and India gets a competitive advantage in terms of opportunities in the global market,” the chairman concluded.
He said the actionable points and challenges mentioned in the FICCI-YES Bank Knowledge Report on Enhancing Competitiveness of Indian Agri Exports would contribute in a better understanding and collaboration among all stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem. “APEDA will facilitate and promote several capacity building programmes in association with FICCI and YES Bank so that the report is percolated at all levels,” said Dr Angamuthu.
In his remarks, Dr Ashok Dalwai, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare stated that in order to increase the income of farmers, it is necessary to connect our farms to remote markets, including international markets. Therefore, exports of agricultural products need to be supported by an approach that is based on ecosystems. “Any enterprise demands three things- timely service, adherence to quality parameters and cost competitiveness. When it comes to agri exports, if we can focus on these three basic parameters, we would be winning the game” Dr Dalwai said.
In announcing the numerous actions that are being undertaken by APEDA, Dr Sudhanshu, Secretary, APEDA said that such initiatives will certainly contribute to increasing the effectiveness of Indian agricultural exports and helping Indian farmers reap the benefits of a variety of export opportunities in the agricultural sector.
Sanjay Sacheti, Co-Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Agriculture and the Executive Director of Olam Agro India declared, “India needs to very aggressively grow its agri-exports, not only in quantitative terms but also qualitative aspects. We have historically been a commodity exporter but there is a huge opportunity to move up the value chain, enrich the profile of our exports and hence capture value at the higher end of goods and services that we are capable of exporting from here.”
Vivek Chandra the CEO of Global Branded Business at LT Foods pointed out that branding is crucial to products and making sure that they are of the highest quality throughout the Agri value chain in order to increase our nation’s exports of agricultural products.
The analogy is drawn with the rapid expansion of exports coming from India’s IT industry riding on the Y2K trend, S Sivakumar COO, ITC Limited, declared that the post-Covid environment could be a similar catalyst for the agri-food sector to increase exports of high-value products that align with the needs of the consumers around the world for food that is nutritious and organic.
According to the report, YES Bank representative said that a value chain focused on commodities transformation strategy is essential to boost competitiveness in exports. In highlighting the main recommendations of this report, the representative said that coordinated efforts are required in order to unlock the potential of small farmers and establishing the export-enabling capacity for quality assurance, fostering an environment for export-friendly policy and encouraging private sector investment and creating the way for a public-private partnership to drive exports.
TR Kesavan Chairman of the FICCI The National Committee on Agriculture and the Group President of the TAFE — Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited stated, “We need to create a knowledge-sharing at ground level so as to prepare our farmers well and enable them to get the benefit of several export opportunities in agriculture. He also mentioned the importance of traceability and blockchain solutions to enhance the value proposition of Indian agri produce”.
