Recently, Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) celebrated its 36th Foundation Day. The Government has received support from APEDA in increasing the agricultural products’ export from USD 0.6 billion in 1986 to USD 20.67 billion in 2020-21, along with helping to expand the export basket to 205 countries.
The APEDA exports of USD 20.67 billion constituted 49% of overall agricultural product exports in 2020-21 out of which. APEDA’s target for the current financial year is USD 23.7 billion, out of which more than 70%, which amounts to USD 17.20 billion has already been achieved by January 2022.
APEDA promoted IT-enabled activities for the ease of doing business and promotion of exports from India. APEDA has undertaken multiple measures such as paperless office, APEDA Mobile App, online services delivery in phases, monitoring and evaluation, uniform access, and virtual trade fair to make governance more efficient and effective.
In line with the mission of ‘vocal for local’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, APEDA has focused on the promotion of exports of Geographical Indications (GI), which are acquired locally, as well as indigenous and ethnic agricultural products. New products, as well as export destinations, have been finalized and trial shipments have been facilitated.
At present, there are 417 registered GI products, out of which around 150 are GI tagged are agricultural and food products.
The Agri Export Policy implementation is in the final stage. 21 states and two UTs, namely Ladakh and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, have already finalised the state-specific action plan. The states with specific action plans comprise of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The rest of the seven states are working on the action plans and are at different stages of completion.
Country specific agricultural export strategy reports have been prepared for 60 countries in close consultation with the Indian Embassies and High Commissions of the respective countries, so as to tap the opportunities that have emerged due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Coordinating with the Government’s push to ensure the ease of doing business, APEDA is helping the state governments to ensure traceability and market linkages of farmers for promoting exports. APEDA is working to ensure the digitalization of the land records and the formalization of tenancy for the farmers, which in turn will help boost the exports.
APEDA now has a Market Intelligence Cell and the e-market intelligence reports consisting of detailed market analysis has is being circulated. APEDA has also set up a Farmer Connect Portal on its website, to provide a platform for Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs), Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) and Cooperatives to interact with various exporters.
APEDA has integrated a Blockchain solution, for promoting the hybrid technology usage, into its GrapeNet platform. The GrapeNet is a web-based software system to monitor and trace fresh grapes exported from India to the European Union. The APEDA Trust Chain, which is a blockchain solution, helps in tracking the details of the export, from the consignment to the location of the vineyards.
APEDA has taken up the initiative to make Purvanchal a new destination of agricultural export activities. This is being done by developing Varanasi Agricultural Export Hub. Varanasi region, after intervention by APEDA, has witnessed impeccable up gradation in the export arena and has registered many first-of-its-kind achievements in a very short span of time.
India is the biggest producer of main agricultural crops, fruits and vegetables, but the nation’s contribution to the Agri-exports to the global market has remained insignificant due to lack of required infrastructure at the farm, after production and logistics.
APEDA started its first traceability system with the export of grapes to European Union countries. At the start, the system was paper-based but eventually was turned to an IT-enabled service which started the traceability system in the horticulture sector as GrapeNet. Following the success of traceability in the grape sector, the system was replicated for multiple other agricultural products such as peanut (Peanut.net); Organic products (Trace.net) and meat products (Meat.net).
The APEDA website has facilities for the online issuance of Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC), Registration-cum-Allocation Certificate (RCAC) and submission of financial assistance scheme applications. The growth has been registered in the export segment in the last two years, even after the disruption of supplies and supply-chain due to the Covid-19 induced pandemic. APEDA is showcasing the strength of Indian agricultural exports at the Virtual trade fair.
