The next round of talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the 10-nation bloc of Southeast Asian nations—Asean—is scheduled to be held in July to review the existing deal with India, a senior government official said on Sunday.

India has been developing part of the port in Chabahar on Iran's southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman as a way to transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asian countries, bypassing the port of Karachi and Gwadar in its rival Pakistan.

A study to assess required infrastructure and identify main industry clusters for achieving the USD 1 trillion merchandise exports target by 2030 may be submitted by August-September to the commerce ministry, an official said. The official said that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is doing that study for the ministry.

Senior officials of India and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc of will hold the next round of talks in July to review the existing free trade pact in Indonesia, the government said Sunday. The last round of the three-day negotiations concluded on May 9 in Malaysia.

India’s merchandise exports seem to have weathered the headwinds quite well so far amid heightened geopolitical tensions that have rendered the global environment highly uncertain but while support continues from some of its traditional large export partners such as Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The Union government has started procuring onions from farmers at market rates to build an emergency buffer of 500,000 tonne for 2024-25 to boost supplies if prices spike, an official of the consumer affairs ministry said.

Within India’s agriculture sector, the food processing industry is seen as the engine of growth essential to the sector’s expansion. The food processing sector must develop at double-digit rates for the agriculture sector to exceed the 4 per cent growth criterion and meet the growing food demands of the nation’s expanding population.