According to the DGCI&S data, the export of wheat touched an all-time high at $2,118 million in 2021-22, growing 273% from the previous fiscal’s $567 million.

 

 

India’s agricultural exports increased by about 20% to cross $50 billion for the year 2021-22, despite logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of high freight rates, and container shortages, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.

 

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has scripted history by exporting agricultural and processed food products to the tune of $25.6 billion, which is 51% of India’s total agriculture exports of $50 billion, the ministry said.

 

It has also surpassed its own export target of $23.7 billion for the financial year 2021-22 by registering shipments of $25.6 billion.

 

Major exporting destinations were Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, USA, Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, and Egypt.

 

'The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been largely due to the various initiatives taken by Centre through APEDA such as organising B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product-specific and general marketing campaigns with the active involvement of Indian Embassies,' the ministry said.

 

As per the ministry statement, the government organised more than 300 outreach programmes in collaboration with state governments for enhancing the exports of agricultural produce.

 

'We have also created a products matrix for 50 agricultural products which have good scope for expanding our exports portfolios,' said Dr. M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA.

 

As per the provisional figures released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), the agricultural exports have grown by 19.92% during 2021-22 to touch $50.21 billion.

 

The growth rate is over and above the growth of 17.66% at $41.87 billion achieved in 2020-21.

 

The cereal sector in APEDA exports contributes more than 52% share in 2021-22. Livestock products and other processed foods contribute 17 and 15% to APEDA export respectively in 2021-22.

 

According to the DGCI&S data, the export of rice was the top forex earner at $9,654 million during 2021-22, growing 9.35% from the previous year when it was $8,829 million.

 

The export of wheat touched an all-time high at $2,118 million in 2021-22, growing 273% from the previous fiscal’s $567 million, while other cereals registered a growth of 53% by fetching $1,083 million in 2021-22 compared to the previous financial year when it was $705 million.

 

Export of pulses reported a growth of 34% touching $358 million in 2021-22 from $265 million in 2020-21. Dairy products grew by 96% standing at $634 million in 2021-22 from $323 million in 2020-21, while buffalo meat registered a growth of just 4% as export of bovine meat increased from $3,171 million in 2020-21 to $3,303 million in 2021-22.

 

Export of poultry products rose to $71 million in 2021-22 from $58 million in the previous year and sheep/goat meat export was up by 34% to $60 million in 2021-22 from $44 million in the previous year.

 

Fruits and vegetables exports were up by 12% to touch $1,676 million in 2021-22 against $1,492 million in 2020-21, while processed fruits and vegetable exports were up by 7% to reach $1,202 million in 2021-22 against $1,120 million in the previous year.

 

Exports of other processed food items grew by 34% during 2021-22 to touch $1,164 million against $866 million in 2020-21. The cashew exports also grew by 7% to $452 million in 2021-22 from $420 million in the previous year. Floriculture products reported a rise of 33% when they touched $103 million in 2021-22 from $77 million in 2020-21.

The laity on around 47 churches in UK and Europe got the traditional ‘kuruthola’ (tender coconut leaf), which had arrived all the way from Kerala, on the occasion of Palm Sunday.

The leaves were couriered to 40 locations in different countries in EU and UK from the Cochin airport on April 3. 'We have been sending it to the UK and the Gulf for the past 20 years. The numbers have been increasing and this year we sent out more than 20,000 leaves, weighing around 263kg, from our facility at Irinjalakkuda,' said Gopalakrishnan Nair of Geekey International, exporters of vegetables and fruits.

 

This was facilitated through the Agriculture & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the commerce ministry.

The palm leaf is an important part of the ritual. The distributed palm leaves are preserved till the next year and are burned into ashes on Ash Wednesday to apply on the forehead. 'We hope to reach them with fresh leaves in the coming years too,' Nair said.

 

'This product is processed in the packhouse recognized for export to the EU by APEDA and Directorate of Plant Protection & Quarantine under the agriculture ministry. Since the EU and UK have very strict rules, officials from those countries come and verify the facility themselves to ensure the standards and biosafety,' he added.

Thailand yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to form deeper trade partnerships through a so-called mini free trade agreement (mini-FTA) with Telangana state in southern India.

 

According to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, the deepened partnership covers the mutual exchange of relevant market information and best practices regarding policies and programmes; policy design and capacity building support for business sectors; trade and investment opportunities; industrial cooperation; and the establishment of joint ventures.

 

It also includes business linkages and cluster development to enhance the creativity and innovation of business sectors, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in Thailand and Telangana. In addition, the mini-FTA will facilitate business programmes such as seminars, symposiums, workshops, business delegations, business meetings, business matchings, trade fairs, and trade missions, along with other relevant cooperative events organised by each participant or jointly organised by both participants.

 

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Each participant's website or digital platform, such as thaitrade.com for Thailand's Commerce Ministry, or the Telangana State GlobalLinker, would also be linked. The core objective of this would be to connect the participants' startups and SMEs to the global community, in order to help their businesses grow beyond local boundaries.

 

In addition, Telangana would provide support to Thai investors to acquire necessary approvals to set up their facilities in the Indian state, whereas Thai entrepreneurs would endeavour to maximise local employment and local procurement for their manufacturing and service industry units and work with Telangana to establish forward and backward linkages.

 

Telangana is situated in India's south-central region. It is the 28th newly formed state, formally established on June 2, 2014, with a total population of about 40 million people and Hyderabad as its capital.

 

Between 2020 and 2021, its gross state domestic product (GSDP) was equivalent to US$132 billion, contributing 5% to India's overall economy. Telangana has become India's sixth largest state in terms of GSDP, with a GSDP growth rate of 2.4% over the past year. Telangana is the economic hub of various business sectors, especially IT and pharmaceutical products, and is also known as "Cyberabad" and "Genome Valley".

 

Mr Jurin said the ministry forecasts that two-way trade between Thailand and India will expand by 4-5 % this year, from 474 billion baht in 2021, which increased by 55.8% from 2020.

 

According to Mr Jurin, apart from Telangana, the Commerce Ministry also plans to pursue similar mini-FTAs with five other Indian states, namely Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat and Assam.

 

Thailand has signed mini-FTAs in other countries. Previous deals were one with Kofu city in central Japan and one with China's Hainan province. The ministry is scheduled to sign another mini-FTA with China's Gansu province on April 27.

lgeria’s state grains agency OAIC has issued an international tender to buy soft milling wheat for shipment to two ports only, European traders said on Sunday.

 

The tender sought a nominal 50,000 tonnes but the shipment to two ports generally indicates a small purchase is planned, traders said.

The deadline for submission of price offers in the tender is Tuesday, April 12, with offers having to remain valid until Wednesday, April 13.

The wheat is sought for shipment in several periods from the main supply regions including Europe: May 1-10, May 11-20, May 21-31, June 1-10, June 11-20 and June 21-30.

 

If sourced from South America or Australia, shipment is one month earlier. The wheat should be unloaded in the two ports of Mostaganem and/or Tenes.

 

Algeria is a vital customer for wheat from the European Union, especially France.

Source: Reuters (Reporting by Michael Hogan)

Andhra Pradesh is expected to produce more bananas in the coming days as National Horticulture Board (NHB) has selected three districts, Anantapr, Kurnool and Kadapa of Rayalaseema region in the state, for the implementation of pilot project of Cluster Development Programme (CDP).

 

The ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare has identified 53 horticulture crop clusters in the country.

 

The project expects export of more than 75,000 MTs of banana from Anantapur cluster. Necessary steps have been taken at filed level for production of quality bananas and enhancing export infrastructure facilities in banana clusters.

 

NHB has approved additional funds for the project costing Rs. 269.95 crore as suggested by Andhra Pradesh. Of this, pre-production and production would get 116.5 crore, post-harvest management and value addition 74.75 crore, and logistics, marketing and branding 78.7 crore.

 

As the first instalment, the NHB will be providing 100 crore funding as its share of 40 per cent. Sixty per cent will be invested by the private implementing agencies. Recently, additional secretary, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, Dr Abhilaksh Likhi, along with commissioner of horticulture, SS Sreedhar,visited the banana cluster in Anantapur district and interacted with farmers.

They said the CDP will leverage the geographic specialisation of horticulture clusters to promote integrated and market-led development of pre-production, production, post-harvest, logistics, branding and marketing activities for making them globally competitive.

 

Apart from the support, the NHB is also making efforts to rope in some of the top corporate firms to collaborate with the local farmers to enhance the productivity, quality, post-harvest treatment, packing, market linkage and higher prices with a regular increase in income.

 

A total of 46,967 hectares (Kurnool 4670 ha, Kadapa 26,449 ha and Anantapur 15,848 ha) are under banana cultivation in the three districts. The CDP would focus on 17,000 hectares.

Most of the banana farmers grow karpura chakkerakeli, tella chakkerakeli, budida chakkerakeli, amruthapani, red-banana, sugandhalu (karpura), karpuravali (budida arti) and rasthalu varieties in the state.

The government has now ‘created a product matrix for 50 items from Purvanchal, the Himalayan region, North Eastern states, J&K and Ladakh’.

 

The government is drawing out plans to boost agricultural exports on the back of shipments crossing the $50-billion mark in the last fiscal, weathering high freight rates and container shortages.

 

Processed items at $25.6 billion made up half of the exports, M. Angamuthu, chairman of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), said.

 

The government has now 'created a product matrix for 50 items from Purvanchal (eastern UP), the Himalayan region, North Eastern states, J&K and Ladakh,' Angamuthu said.

 

The focus is to promote natural farming products by developing their standards and certification systems as there is a huge demand for foods, cosmetics and medicines that use natural ingredients, Angamuthu said.

 

Apeda has also set up a website — the farmer connect portal — to facilitate interactions among exporters and farmer producers organisations, co-operatives and women entrepreneurs.

 

The portal has registered 3,295 farmer bodies and exporters and 24 lakh organic farmers.

 

The major destination for exporters are Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, US, Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Egypt. Rice was the top forex earner among farm products at $9.6 billion during 2021-22, growing 9.35 per cent from the previous year when it touched $8.8 billion.

 

Wheat exports hit $2.1 billion in 2021-22, growing 273 per cent from $567 million in 2020-21. The item 'other cereals' registered a growth of 53 per cent to $1.08 billion against $705 million a year ago.

 

Export of bovine meat increased to $3.3 billion in 2021-22 from $3.1 billion a year ago. Fruits and vegetables export were up 12 per cent to touch $1.7 billion against $1.4 billion, while processed fruits and vegetables exports were up 7 per cent to reach $1.2 billion against $1.1 billion.

 

Exports of other processed food items grew 34 per cent during 2021-22 to touch $1.1 billion against $866 million a year ago.

 

Ananthapur Banana Cluster and Horticulture Cluster Development Programme reviewed

 

Banana Cluster in Ananthapur will benefit about 14,000 banana farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain and will handle approximately 7.5 Lakhs MT of banana.

 

Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, IAS, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, visited the Karnapudiki Village of Narpala Mandal in Ananthapur District to review the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (HCDP) of National Horticulture Board. Ananthapur for Banana has been selected as a pilot cluster under HCDP. During the visit, Dr. Likhi interacted with the stakeholders of the banana value chain from the cluster. While interacting with the banana growers he highlighted that the programme addresses the challenges of entire value chain, including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.

 

The HCDP is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters. He explained to banana growers the importance of Good Agricultural Practices resulting in getting quality produce which would eventually translate into higher remuneration. He urged block-level horticulture officers to take a workshop with farmers on Cluster Development Programme and make them understand the programme’s aspects and objectives.

 

Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has identified 55 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme.The clusters of the pilot phase include Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (H.P.) for Apple, Lucknow (U.P.), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for Mango, Anantpur (A.P.) and Theni (T.N.) for Banana, Nasik (Maharashtra) for Grapes, Siphahijala (Tripura) for Pineapple, Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for Pomegranate and West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for Turmeric.

 

Talking about the reach and impact of the programme, Dr. Likhi said, “Banana Cluster in Ananthapur will benefit about 14,000 banana farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain and will handle approximately 7.5 Lakhs MT of banana. With this programme, we aim to improve exports of the targeted crops by 20-25% and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops”.

 

Dr. Likhi reviewed the overall progress of the programme during interaction with the officers from Andhra Pradesh Horticulture Development Agency, which is appointed as Cluster Development Agency to implement the programme in the cluster. He requested involved officers to ensure that the programme gets implemented in a timely manner and a periodic meeting should take place to review the ongoing activities under the programme. During the visit, Dr. Likhi was accompanied by Commissioner Horticulture, Andhra Pradesh; Director Horticulture, Andhra Pradesh; Director, Horticulture Development Agency, and other officers from the Department of horticulture, Andhra Pradesh.

For the first time in history Assam Jackfruits will be exported to Dubai from the state. District Deputy Commissioner Anbamuthan MP flag off the consignment on Friday evening from Bilasipara town.

 

The consignment exported today has 1.5 tonnes of tender Jackfruit and 0.5 tonnes green chillies, which will be distributed by Lulu Group international through its chain of more than 200 supermarkets and hyper markets throughout Gulf countries. The whole process is coordinated by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

 

Anbamuthan MP said, "A special day for the agro-economics sector of Dhubri district as well as for the entire Assam'.

 

Abul Kalam Azad, President of the FPO describing the whole process said, 'We are waiting for this day for years. We are trying to export green Chilli and tender Jackfruit from last six months. District administration helped us all the time. We are grateful to them.'

 

 

The farmer producer organization (FPO) namely Green Chilli Producer Organization Cooperative Society Ltd which has 560 shareholder farmer from Bilasipara and Nayer Alga Development Block area has produced the exported items, which will continue on weekly basis.

 

The negotiations between National Plant Protection Organisations of India and Canada on market access for Indian Banana and Baby corn resulted in Canadian market access for these commodities. In a meeting held between Shri Manoj Ahuja, Secretary (DA&FW) and H.E. Cameron MacKay Canadian High Commissioner on 07.04.22, Canada informed that export of fresh baby corn from India to Canada may begin from April 2022 after updation of directive D-95-28: Plant Protection Import and Domestic Movement Requirements for Corn and the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS). Further, based on the technical information provided for fresh banana by India, Canada has approved, banana for entry into Canada with immediate effect.

 

This decision of the Government of Canada would immensely benefit the Indian farmers growing these crops and would also enhance India’s export earnings.

India's exports grew by 37.57 per cent to USD 9.32 billion during April 1-7, according to preliminary data of the commerce ministry . Exports excluding petroleum  increased by 24.32 per cent. 

 

Imports during the period rose by 8.29 per cent to USD 10.54 billion, the data showed.

 

India's merchandise exports soared to a record high of USD 418 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal on higher shipments of petroleum products, engineering goods, gem and jewellery and chemicals.