Official procurement agencies Nafed and Food Corporation of India (FCI) have purchased 22.96 lakh tonne (lt) of chana, 3,230 tonnes of moong and 105 tonnes of urad during March-May period as against 4.11 lt of chana, 3,848 tonne of moong and 18 tonne of masoor in the year-ago period. The large quantity of chana procurement, after mandi prices dropped, has fuelled speculation that the government may soon resume distribution of it through ration shops, as it had done in 2020 after announcement of lockdown.

 

'Due to Covid, the government was able to offload its stock under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana by offering 1 kg chana to each family free of cost. Since selling it in open market may depress prices of other pulses, particularly during kharif harvesting period, the government will have to take a call after assessing output of kharif-grown pulses,' said a pulses industry official.

 

Low procurement

Against a sanctioned 14.08 lt of kharif pulses – tur, urad and moong, only 1.14 lt could be procured by the government, out of which the maximum (75,477 tonne) was moong. With regard to kharif oilseeds, except groundnut, no other crop could be procured. The groundnut procurement was only 1.51 lt against 16.76 lt sanctioned.

 

'Procurement of oilseeds and pulses depend on market prices as government agencies buy at minimum support price (MSP) whereas farmers tend to sell in open market when they get higher realisation. Our procurement is not a compulsion, irrespective of market prices,' said a Nafed official involved in procurement.

 

MP leads in procurement

While Madhya Pradesh has contributed maximum 7.69 lt of chana, other States which have procured this pulse variety include Maharashtra at 6.33 lt, Gujarat at 5.59 lt and Rajasthan at 1.2 lt.

 

Kharif pulses acreage down

The area under pulses this kharif season, which began with the onset of monsoon, is likely to decline as farmers in key growing States of Maharashtra and Karnataka are seen shifting to cotton, soyabean, maize and sugarcane on hope of better prices.

 

Stakeholders in the pulses sector say the acreage could drop by 5-15 per cent this kharif season compared with last year, on account of a bearish trend in the pulses complex including tur, moong and chana, while returns have been better for growers of other crops such as cotton and soyabean last year. Also, the Government’s liberal import policy for pulses to keep inflation under check is weighing on domestic prices and may influence plantings. Pulses were planted on about 142.37 lakh hectares (lh) in 2021 kharif season, about three lh more than the previous year.

 

The Government has set the kharif pulses production target of 10.55 mt for 2022-23 crop year (July-June) against actual output of 8.25 mt (third advance estimates) in 2021-22. The targeted kharif pulses production for the 2022 cropping season includes 4.55 mt of tur, 2.7 mt of urad, 2.5 mt of moong and 0.80 mt of other pulses.

India's bilateral trade with all the six members of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) group countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, has increased significantly in 2021-22 on account of increasing economic ties between the two regions. India's exports to the GCC have increased by 58.26 per cent to about USD 44 billion in 2021-22 against USD 27.8 billion in 2020-21, according to the data of the commerce ministry.

 

The share of these six countries in India's total exports has risen to 10.4 per cent in 2021-22 from 9.51 per cent in 2020-21.

 

Similarly, imports rose by 85.8 per cent to USD 110.73 billion compared to USD 59.6 billion in 2020-21, the data showed.

 

The share of GCC members in India's total imports rose to 18 per cent in 2021-22 from 15.5 per cent in 2020-21.

 

Bilateral trade has increased to USD 154.73 billion in 2021-22 from USD 87.4 billion in 2020-21.

 

These increasing figures assume significance as India is looking at negotiating a free trade agreement with the grouping.

 

The country has already implemented a comprehensive trade pact with the UAE on May 1, with an aim to boost bilateral trade to USD 100 billion in the coming years.

 

The GCC was established in May 1981. Its members are Saudi Arabia Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and UAE.

 

Mumbai-based exporter and founder chairman of Techno-craft Industries India Sharad Kumar Saraf said that the GCC has emerged as a major trading partner for India and huge potential is there for increasing investments also between the two regions.

 

'The trade relation is bound to grow in the coming years. Reasons for the growth include anti-China sentiments, increasing quality of domestic goods and improvement in international trade. A quantum jump will come when the trade pact will be operationalised properly,' Saraf said.

 

Another industry expert said that the GCC's substantial oil and gas reserves are of fundamental importance for India's energy needs and India can support in meeting the GCC's food security requirements.

Doha [Qatar], June 7 (ANI): During his last leg of a three-nation tour, Vice President, M Venkaiah Naidu addressed the members of the Indian diaspora in Doha on Monday.

 

'India-Qatar ties have progressed since PM Modi motivated the ‘Look West’ policy. He has taken a personal interest in engaging with the Qatar leadership,' he said during the interaction with the Indian community.

 

He also addressed members of the business community at India-Qatar Business Forum during his visit and highlighted the strength of the ties as he called for building an enabling environment and forging more collaborations for mutual benefit.

 

As a part of his visit,Vice President Naidu who is on the last leg of his three-country visit launched the 'India-Qatar Start-Up bridge' to link the start-up ecosystems of the two countries at the India-Qatar Business Forum on Sunday while he also visited the Qatar National Museum in Doha.

 

The Vice President highlighted the exchanges that paved the way for a special relationship between both the countries which has evolved over centuries through people-to-people and cultural exchanges.

 

'We have now a very robust India-Qatar economic partnership and it is getting enriched with each passing day,' he said, adding that bilateral trade between India and Qatar has seen steady progress.

 

The Vice President said Qatar Investment Authority has committed investments of over USD 2 billion in Indian companies in the last two years.

 

During this visit, the Vice President is being accompanied by Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Sushil Kumar Modi, Member of Parliament, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Member of Parliament, P. Raveendranath, Member of Parliament and senior officials from the Vice President’s Secretariat and the Ministry of External Affairs. (ANI)

Can the Indian poultry industry take advantage of the gap in the market arising from a ban on chicken exports by Malaysia? The poultry sector is split in its views over the prospects of tapping the opportunity in South-East Asia, particularly Singapore. 

 

Last week, Malaysia banned chicken exports to cool domestic prices. According to trade analysts, Kuala Lumpur’s move could present an opportunity, while there could be a loss too. 

 

Singapore could be developed as an export market since it imports 44 million live birds a year. Also, it imports 34 per cent (about 73,000 tonnes) of its chicken supply from Malaysia. 

 

Singapore’s woes

The ban leaves Singapore without fresh supplies of  Malaysian birds. It will now be left with only the supply of frozen birds from Brazil. Frozen chicken from the South American nation accounts for 48 per cent of the total imports by Singapore. The US is next supplying 8 per cent, while a group of countries make up the rest 10 per cent.

 

Vasantkumar Shetty, President of the Poultry Farmers and Breeders Association of Maharashtra, said establishing immediate export links with Singapore would be difficult as Indian chicken is not accepted in the international market because there is no low pathogenic avian influenza (LPA) vaccination. 

 

 Indian chicken producers ( processors ) will never miss an opportunity, provided they fulfil the importing nation’s formalities, said Sushant Rai, President, Karnataka Poultry Farmers Breeders Association.

 

Ban temporary

'There is not much opportunity for us to tap the Singapore market in particular. The ban is temporary and we have not invested much in processing chicken meat,' said B Soundararajan, Chairman of Suguna Holdings. 

 

'The capacities are very low 10-15 per cent. There won’t be many benefits in creating new capacities in processing,' he said. 

 

Ricky Thaper, Treasurer, Poultry Federation of India, said: 'There is a good scope of export of dressed chicken to Singapore from India and a few companies from South India, having poultry processing plants, are already in the process of export.'  

 

Value-wise, current chicken exports are lower in value compared with Brazil and the US, he said. 

 

Expensive product

Bahadur Ali, Managing Director of the poultry and livestock feed company IB Group, said it would be difficult for India to cash in on the situation as Indian chicken is expensive compared with the chicken produced in Indonesia, the Phillippines, China and Bangladesh.

 

He also cited the demand-and-supply gap and high feed costs as another reason. 

 

'Only a few slaughter plants in India will comply with very stringent Singapore food norms for chicken,' he said.

 

Another poultry industry official said even Thailand could step in to make up for the void created by the Malaysian ban. 

 

Rising input costs

TP Sethumadhavan, former Director of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, said India can consider the Malaysian ban as an opportunity to export chicken to Singapore despite its current shipments to Singapore and Malaysia being low. 

 

He said this would help the poultry farmers and entrepreneurs cater to the growing overseas demand.

 

Ali said going by input, cold chain and logistical costs, chicken exports would be almost impossible. 'The price of dressed fresh chicken is Rs.240 a kg. If you add the cost of cold chain and logistics, it will cross the Rs.260-mark,' he said.

 

Pegging the cost of feed per kg of the live bird at Rs.69 or 90 US cents per kg, he said exports would not be feasible for the Indian sector. 

 

Lack of processing facilities

K S Ashok Kumar of MAA Integrators in Karnataka concurred with his view, saying: 'We don’t export much chicken.  We are at a cost disadvantage as of now, because of high input costs.' 

 

'As of now, no significant exports are happening,' he said

 

According to Madanmohan Maity, General Secretary, West Bengal Poultry Federation, the ban on the export of chickens from Malaysia could have been an opportunity for the poultry industry, particularly West Bengal, if only it had adequate processing facilities. 

 

Bengal produces close to 2.5 crore kg of chicken every week, but less than one per cent is exported.

 

'Export calls for proper processing and that kind of infrastructure is not adequately available here,' Maity said. 

 

Shetty said India could focus on the United Arab Emirates, which lifted a five-year-old ban on importing eggs and other poultry products from India in December last year. 

 

Ukraine market

The ban was lifted after the Centre assured to follow biosafety norms prescribed by the World Organisation for Animal Health to prevent infection from bird flu. 'UAE is an established market for our chicken and links must be immediately strengthened against the ongoing crisis,' he said, referring to the war in Ukraine. 

 

Industry players say India must capture Ukraine’s market in UAE.

 

Sethumadhavan said the per capita consumption of chicken in Malaysia per year is 49.4 kg, whereas in India, it is only 3.1 kg and the national average is 17.1 kg. Besides these two countries, India is catering to the Gulf countries and the Maldives with exports worth $5.9 million, he said, quoting Apeda figures.

 

Analysts said the Malaysian ban could perhaps affect exports of maize (corn) and broken rice from India that are used as feed.

 

Exports, on the other hand, could also result in the prices of chicken rising in the domestic market. 

Vietnam has fired the first salvo against Thailand and Vietnam plans to set up a rice cartel by lowering the import duty on the Indian cereal from 50 per cent to 35 per cent. 

 

Reacting to the proposal of Thailand and Vietnam, the second and third largest rice exporters in the global market, Fermin Adriano, the under-secretary in the Department of Agriculture, said an executive order has been issued to lower the duty. Manila is considering India as an alternative source of the foodgrain if the South-East Asian nations raised prices and formed a rice cartel, he was quoted by local media.  

 

Raising farmers income

India is the world’s largest rice exporter accounting for about 40 per cent of global exports. Last year, rice shipments from the country topped 21.3 million tonnes, including Basmati rice. The Philippines imposes 50 per cent duty on rice imports from non-ASEAN nations. 

 

On May 30, the Thailand government spokesperson Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said Bangkok and Hanoi planned to increase the prices of the grain to raise farmers’ income and gain bargaining power in the global market. One of the reasons for the plans to form the cartel, according to Wangboonkongchana, is that foodgrain prices have been ruling for almost two decades now even as the production cost has increased. 

 

Demand recovery

Both the nations came out with such a thought as the global demand for rice is on the way to recovery, overcoming the impact of the Covid pandemic. 

 

According to the International Grains Council (IGC), India continues to be very competitive in the global rice market with its 25 per cent broken white rice quoting at $342 a tonne during the weekend. Vietnam is quoting $421 for its 5 per cent broken white rice and Thailand $449 for the same grade.

 

Vidya Sagar VR, Director, Bulk Logix, told BusinessLine that India’s 5 per cent broken white rice is quoted at around $340 free-on-board (f.o.b), while parboiled 5 per cent broken is ruling at $350-55 a tonne, 25 per cent broken white rice at $330 and 100 per cent broken at $320-5. 

 

Competitive by over $100/tonne

'Rice exports from India are booming now. We are quoting at least $100 a tonne lower than Vietnam and Thailand. China, Vietnam and the Philippines are buying good volumes,' he said.

 

In particular, the Swarna variety rice is being shipped from West Bengal and this is similar to Sona Masuri rice grown in southern parts of India. 'Even for 100 per cent broken, the Swarna variety is getting preference,' Sagar said. 

 

In the domestic market, the modal price (the rate at which most trades take place) of rice is ruling at ?1,700-960 a quintal across various agricultural markets in the country against the minimum support price of ?1,960 for Grade A paddy. 

 

Govt-to-govt deals

'There is no need for India to join such a rice cartel when its share of the global  exports is 40 per cent. India has publicly committed itself to ensure that it would likely to feed the world and doesn’t want anyone to go hungry,' said S Chandrasekaran, a Delhi-based trade analyst.

 

This is the third time that Thailand has come out with such a proposal. In 2003, the plan did not take off. In 2008, Thailand wanted to form an organisation of rice exporting countries along with Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. But the Philippines and Asian Development Bank, although Cambodia backed it. However, the proposal was shunned as the world opinion was against such a cartel. 

 

India has a good chance to export more to the Philippines, said M Madan Prakash, President, Agri Commodity Exporters Association. 'The government in Manila is looking for government-to-government exports since private traders importing rice are selling it at a higher price,' he said.

 

Even otherwise, enquiries from the Philippines are higher, he said, adding that no purpose would be served by India becoming a part of the cartel. 'India will have to raise or lower its price as per the cartel’s decision. This will not help the country in any way,' Chandrasekaran said. 

 

Thai, Viet exporters skeptical

The Thailand Rice Exporters also feel that a rice cartel is not a feasible proposition. However, the exporters’ association has not been taken into confidence over the proposal. 'Politicians don’t understand the rice market and did not discuss this with the association,' he said.

 

The Vietnam Food Association doesn’t favour such an association at a time when there is food uncertainty. India has been able to dominate the global trade as it has ample stocks with it and its production is estimated at a record 129.66 million tonnes in the crop year ending this month. 

 

Chandrasekaran said Thailand comes out with such proposals when it faces a crisis. But the situation is different from 2003 and 2008. 'Trade indication is that this is a government move and not supported by local exporters,' he said. 

 

Food security initiative 

Meanwhile, The Rice Exporters Association of India (TREA) has launched a food security cooperating initiative with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Southern Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce along with the Philippines Department of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry.

 

TREA President BV Krishna Rao said through the initiative, India will help Manila to diversify its import basket in tune with what other large importers such as Indonesia are doing. The initiative was proposed by former Indian ambassador to the Philippines Jaideep Mazumdar. 

 

During President Ram Nath Kovind’s visit to Manila in October 2019, India had offered its public and private-sector led technical know-how, assistance and investments to improve the productivity of the rice value chain through agri fintech technologies. Besides, it offered help in warehouse receipt financing, predictive natural disaster monitoring and agri mechanisation. 

The Central government has set up a National Food Laboratory under the Indo-Nepal bilateral agreement, which will make it easier and quicker to test food products being brought into the country from Nepal.

 

Earlier, all imported samples with legal sanctity were sent to National Food Laboratory in Kolkata for testing. The new National Food Laboratory, under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, was inaugurated by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in Bihar’s Raxaul on Sunday, near the Indo-Nepal border.

 

Officials said the laboratory had been established under Indo-Nepal bilateral agreement to reduce the time to test imported food samples brought in via Raxaul from Nepal. Now, businesses in Nepal would find it easier to scale up export of food products into India, the minister said.

 

The laboratory is likely to get the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation by July-August this year. They will test and analyse all the imported samples under the product categories of cereal and cereal products, fat and oil, spices and condiments, fruits and vegetable products and packaged drinking. The minister also said that India is willing to provide any assistance needed to get NABL accreditation to the Kathmandu food lab.

Unlike wheat exports in which each letter of credit (LC) is verified, the government adopted a different yardstick on sugar and distributed a 1 million tonne (mt) export release order quota on a pro-rata basis among those who had applied for the permits.

 

The companies that have received the approval include Shri Dutt India for 1,77,141 tonnes, Shree Renuka Sugars for 1,37,415 tonnes and Garden Court Distilleries for 1,03,424 tonnes, according to the notification issued on June 5.

 

A total of 62 exporters and sugar mills had submitted 326 applications (separately for different quantities) on the National Single Window System seeking permits worth 2.3 mt. After perusing these applications, the Food Ministry has approved 1 mt and asked them to export within 90 days. The allottees of export release order (RO) quota will have to submit a progress report to the Directorate of Sugar weekly.

 

'It would have been better of the government following earlier practice allotted the 1 mt quota to sugar mills as they would have benefitted by selling the sugar to exporters,' said a mill owner. However, official sources said that since the export window is too short and quantity is not big enough, the government went with those seeking the permits.

 

The allocation to an exporter, for instance, has been made out of a 1 mt total quota as per its percentage share in the request quantity of 2.31 mt. While Mills need to dispatch sugar within 30 days of issuance of RO, exporters need to comply with shipments within 90 days, the Ministry earlier said.

 

The government on May 24 announced that sugar (raw, refined and white sugar) exports from June 1 would be allowed only through permits and fixed a maximum quantity of 10 mt for this season (October-September). The order issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will be valid until October 31. However, sugar being exported to the EU and the US under CXL and tariff rate quota (TRQ) are exempt from the current restriction.

 

A day after the decision, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey had said that, unlike wheat where shipments were prohibited, the step in sugar was to monitor the movement of the sweetener out of the country so that there was no problem with domestic availability.

 

In sugar season 2021-22, about 8.2 mt of the sweetener has been dispatched from sugar mills for export, out of which, a record 7.8 mt have been already shipped, out of the contracted 9 mt. The government expects no problem of availability in domestic market as another 2.8 mt can go out of the country.

 

India had exported 7 mt of sugar in 2020-21 season as against 0.62 mt in 2017-18, 3.8 mt in 2018-19 and 5.96 mt in 2019-20.

 

Highlighting that India has emerged this year as the world’s largest sugar producer, ahead of Brazilans , Pandey had said that the closing stock at the end of this season would be 6.2 mt (after factoring 10 mt on export), which was enough to take care of lean period demand from October-December.

Becoming a medium of prosperity for the farmers, the Kisan rail, started in 2020, by the Indian Railways (IR) has set a record of transporting over 7 lakh tonnes of agricultural products so far.

 

The Kisan rail, which swiftly ferries the perishable and other agricultural products from one place to another for providing wider markets, was first introduced on August 7 in 2020.

 

'Since then, rendering a marvellous service to the nation as a national transporter, 2,352 Kisan rails have been operated from across the country on 167 rail routes,' Rajiv Jain- additional director general (ADG)PR, Railway told The New Indian Express.

 

Jain, sharing details about the services of the Kisan rail, said that over 7.87 lakh tonnes of agriculture products have been transported so far since it was first introduced.

 

'The Kisan rail has become a medium of prosperity for the farmers of the country, who send their agriculture products, like fruits, vegetables, maize and other crops and products. It saves times from loading to delivery due to fast service from one corner to another corners and markets, resulting into a major boost to ameliorate the economy of farmers,' Jain said.

 

Besides this, the Indian Railways, working on the vision of Prime minister Narendra Modi, under the leadership of union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, has also heralded a new era of rail communication across the four states of Northeast as a mascot of prosperity.

 

'In the last eight years, rail services have reached the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya for the first time, giving a much-needed rail connectivity to the residents of these states,' Jain claimed, adding that the introduction of Vande Bharat express trains soon will add another feather of fine service to the Indian Railways.

The price of wheat has jumped in the international markets after India announced a ban on the export of the staple cereal and due to the reduced production prospects in Ukraine following the Russian invasion, the UN food agency has said.

 

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Price Index averaged 157.4 points in May 2022, down 0.6 per cent from April.

 

The index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly-traded food commodities, however, remained 22.8 per cent higher than in May 2021.

 

The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 173.4 points in May, up 3.7 points (2.2 per cent) from April and as much as 39.7 points (29.7 per cent) above its May 2021 value.

 

'International wheat prices rose for a fourth consecutive month, up 5.6 per cent in May, to average 56.2 per cent above their value last year and only 11 per cent below the record high reached in March 2008,' it said on Friday.

 

'The steep increase in wheat prices was in response to an export ban announced by India amidst concerns over crop conditions in several leading exporting countries, as well as reduced production prospects in Ukraine because of the war,' it said.

 

In contrast, international coarse grain prices declined by 2.1 per cent in May but remained 18.1 per cent above their value a year ago.

 

Slightly improved crop conditions in the United States of America, seasonal supplies in Argentina and the imminent start of Brazil's main maize harvest led maize prices to decline by 3.0 per cent, however, they remained 12.9 per cent above their level of May 2021, it said.

 

International rice prices increased for the fifth successive month in May.

 

Quotations strengthened in all the major market segments, but monthly increases were least pronounced (2.6 per cent) for the most widely traded Indica varieties, amid ample supplies, especially in India, it said.

 

The FAO Sugar Price Index declined by 1.1 percent from April, as a bumper crop in India buoyed global availability prospects.

 

The weakening of the Brazilian real against the US dollar, along with lower ethanol prices resulted in further downward pressure on world sugar prices.

 

'The FAO Sugar Price Index averaged 120.3 points in May, down 1.3 points (1.1 per cent) from April, marking the first decline after sharp increases registered in the previous two months,' the agency said.

 

'The recent monthly decline in international sugar price quotations was triggered by limited global import demand and good global availability prospects, mostly stemming from a bumper crop in India,' it said.

 

Last month, India announced that it was banning wheat exports in a bid to check high prices amid concerns of wheat output being hit by the scorching heat wave.

 

Wheat exports were allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Indian government to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their governments.

 

Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan had told the Ministerial Meeting on ‘Global Food Security Call to Action' chaired by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken under the US Presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of May that India is 'committed to ensuring that such adverse impact on food security is effectively mitigated and the vulnerable cushioned against sudden changes in the global market. In order to manage our own overall food security and support the needs of neighbouring and other vulnerable developing countries, we have announced some measures regarding wheat exports on 13 May 2022."

 

'Let me make it clear that these measures allow for export on the basis of approvals to those countries who are required to meet their food security demands. This will be done on the request from the concerned governments. Such a policy will ensure that we will truly respond to those who are most in need,' he added, emphasising that India will play its due role in advancing global food security.

PUNE To bring down the logistics cost by up to 10 per cent and capture the overseas market, Indian mangoes will now be exported to the United States by sea route. The first container will leave from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Navi Mumbai on Sunday and reach Newark city in? New Jersey by the first week of July.

 

According to Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB) deputy manager Bhaskar Patil, with the sea route, the cost of transportation will come down to Rs55 to Rs60 per kg.

 

'We have sent 16,560 kg mangoes in 5,520 boxes to JNPT on Friday (June 3). They would be dispatched on June 5 and would reach the US by the first week of July,' said Patil.

 

In 2019, mangoes from the country were exported by the sea route to London after air freight rates went up following the stoppage of flights from Jet Airways. The same year, Indian firms tried to send mangoes to the US via sea though the attempt failed.

 

While officials from MSAMB were exploring the sea route for mango export to the US, it was seen inviable given the duration to reach the destination against the short shelf life of the fruit. Finally, the first consignment is now ready to be transported via sea by Sanap Agro Pvt Limited.

 

According to MSAMB’s executive director Sunil Pawar, this is a historic moment as for the first-time Indian mangoes will be exported by sea route to the US.

 

'The existing air freight rates are so costly that it takes Rs.550 per kg of mango as logistics cost. Through the sea route, it will come down to 10 per cent of the air freight rate to reach the US market. It will also help Indian farmers to send a large number of mangoes to the US as there is good demand there,' Pawar said.

 

According to MSAMB officials, three different organisations including Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), MSAMB, and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) worked together to make export by sea route successful. In the year 2019, MSAMB tried to export mangoes by sea to the US market. While the mangoes took 38 days to reach, there was no proper treatment done. 'Now BARC has worked on all the shortcomings and mangoes are being exported,' said Pawar.

 

As per the MSAMB, during 2019, around 1,200 metric tonnes of mangoes were exported to the US. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, mango export was limited in 2020 and 2021.

 

As the shelf life of mangoes is less, BARC has helped to increase preservation by carrying out various treatments at its Navi Mumbai centre. The BARC had set up the irradiation centre known at Lasalgaon in Nashik and another at Navi Mumbai to treat agriculture commodities for their preservation for an extended period.

 

BARC bioscience director TK Ghanti said, 'BARC is helping MSAMB to increase the shelf life and storage limit for the fresh fruits and agricultural commodities.'