Chennai, Sept. 23 Increased emphasis on infrastructure development and marketing to support agro exports is the key for sustained growth in the international markets, according to Prof K.V. Thomas, Union Minister of State for Agriculture.
Addressing a seminar on promoting agro exports, the Minister said technology infusion in production and output has supported the growth of agriculture. But, to promote exports, the emphasis should be on growing infrastructure and application of technology for harvest and post-harvest to transfer high-quality produce to the consumer.
Developments such as contract farming were helping to address the issue of fragmented farm holdings. Exporters need to move from bulk and commodity exports to retail packaging through value addition, he said.
India would be competing with a host of other countries to gain a share of the export market. Agro exports were of special significance in the context of the on-going negotiations in world trade and the economic slowdown that has impacted the major economies, he said.
The Centre, State, farmers and industry need to work together to protect business. Traders overseas were attempting to register trademarks of produce native to India. For instance, ‘Ponni’ (rice) which was unique to South India was trademarked in Malaysia, Prof Thomas said.
Main constraint
The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, said India was nowhere near tapping the full potential of agro exports, which constituted about 11.5 per cent of its export basket at $18 billion. India was among the top producers of horticulture, poultry and dairy products, but had a 1.5 per cent share of global trade.
The main constraint was the gap in logistics infrastructure and the cold chain, he said. India has to meet the quality standards set by developed countries to make a mark in the exports. Besides, domestic factors such as productivity, efficiency and cost of production had an impact on the ability to tap markets abroad.
The maximum potential for value-added exports was in fruit and vegetable crops. Farmers have to be brought closer to the consumers, he said.
Limited focus
Mr T.C. Venkat Subramanian, Chairman and Managing Director, Exim Bank, said a long-term strategy to promote exports was limited to plantation crops and a few other products that accounted for $7 billion of the total agro exports of $17 billion. Cereal exports were completely dependent on domestic market availability. Issues such as the varieties cultivated, shelf life and quality limited the access to export markets. However, smaller countries in Latin America had been able to tap the export markets to a larger level.
Source : Business Line