India and Nepal agreed on Monday to further bolster their economic and development cooperation as Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra met his Nepalese counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal and had a fruitful exchange on strengthening the comprehensive bilateral relations. Foreign Secretary Kwatra arrived here on a two-day official visit to hold talks with the country's top political leadership on the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between the two countries.

 

'Foreign Secretary Shri Vinay Kwatra met his counterpart Mr Bharat Raj Paudyal and reviewed the wide-ranging India-Nepal partnership,' the Indian embassy here tweeted.

 

'Both sides agreed to further strengthen their economic and development cooperation for benefit of the two countries and region as a whole,' it said.

 

Later, Kwatra called on Foreign Minister of Nepal Bimala Rai Paudyal and had a fruitful exchange on strengthening the comprehensive India-Nepal relations.

 

'Foreign Secretary Shri Vinay Kwatra called on Hon'ble Foreign Minister of Nepal @bimalarp today and had a fruitful exchange on strengthening the comprehensive India-Nepal relations,' the mission tweeted.

 

During his visit, Kwatra, who was earlier India's ambassador here, will pay courtesy calls to Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal 'Prachanda' and Foreign Minister Paudyal.

 

It is expected that Kwatra will also discuss with his Nepalese interlocutors the possibility of a visit to India by Nepal's Prime Minister Prachanda. Prachanda has said that he will travel to India on his first foreign visit.

 

Nepal and India will discuss various matters of bilateral cooperation such as connectivity, power trade, agriculture, health and culture among others during the foreign secretary's visit, according to a statement issued by Nepal's foreign ministry here on Sunday.

 

'The visit is in continuation of the regular exchange of visits between the two friendly neighbours,' it said.

 

Earlier, Kwatra was received at Tribhuvan International Airport by his Nepalese counterpart Paudyal upon arrival.

 

He had a one-to-one meeting with Paudyal before the delegation level meeting started.

 

Seven members each from Nepal and India took part in the Foreign Secretary level bilateral meeting. Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava was among the members of the Indian delegation while Joint Secretary and spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry Sewa Lamsal was among the members of the Nepalese delegation.

 

This is the first high-level visit from India after Prime Minister Prachanda assumed office for the third time in December.

 

Kwatra is also expected to meet Nepal's top political leaders, including Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli.

 

'The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries and the priority India attaches to its relations with Nepal under its 'Neighbourhood First' policy,' the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

 

India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy is an integral component of Indian foreign policy. The policy seeks to build cordial and synergetic relations with India's South Asian neighbours in various areas such as economy, science and technology, research and education, among others.

 

Valentine’s Day rose exports from Hosur has drastically reduced with just about one-third of the usual quantum of flowers exported this season. The fall in the exports is attributed to the reduced quality in production due to downy mildew disease and also the introduction of IGST on air freight making it uncompetitive in the international market, says exporters.

 

The reasons for fall in exports, however, have varied between small and medium scale farmers, who have mostly stuck to the domestic market this year due to low export quality and decent domestic prices and large contract farmers, whose exports had shrunk despite orders due to the high IGST on air cargo.

 

The heavy rainfall in October and November had afflicted many green houses and open farms with downy mildew disease. Unlike other pest attacks, where crop recovery is seen within a fortnight, recovery from downy mildew takes close to two months. This has hurt the quality production necessary for the export market, says Bala Siva Prasad, president, Hosur Small Farmers Association, and member of Flower Council of India.

 

Hosur has seen its Valentine’s Day flower exports touching 80 lakh stems in 2014-15, says Mr. Prasad. In 2015-16, the season saw exports of 60 lakh stems. However this year, only 18 lakh to 20 lakh stems were exported between February 4 and 10 – that six-day window for exports to meet the date on Valentine’s Day - cutting the exports to just one -third.

 

Cumulatively, there has been a 35% drop in quality production, according to the Hosur Small Farmers Association. This fall in the quality of production, combined with other factors have jointly undercut flower exports.

 

On the other hand, the price per stem in the domestic market as of Friday was between Rs.14 to Rs.20 while the export price per stem was Rs.20 to Rs.22. Given this less than optimal price difference between domestic and exports, in addition to the affiliated costs of exports that come with premium, labour and freight costs together have made it uncompetitive for small and medium farmers to pursue exports this Valentine season.

 

Usually, medium scale green houses source flowers from small farmers to push up their exports.

 

The pinch of low exports, however, is not too hard for the small and medium scale farmers, who are usually part of the export chain for the Valentine’s Day season. That is because of a good domestic demand that has been very high since January 20, the start of Valarpiram muhurtams that coincided in the three States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, bringing in surplus demand and fetched good prices, says Mr. Prasad.

 

Mr. Prasad, who exports 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh stems every year has not exported this year.

 

Different scales, different takes

 

For large-scale contract farmers, the rainfall and the accompanying disease were not damaging due to a good rainwater harvesting infrastructure in high-end green houses of contract farms.

 

But, it was the government’s IGST on air freight that slammed the hammer on their capacity to export, says Sridhar Chowdary, Managing Director, Suvarna Flora, which had exported over 6 lakh stems.

 

'The IGST on air freight was introduced last October with 18%. We kept getting enquiries, but could not transform them into orders because of the exhorbitant tax,' says Mr. Chowdary. ' About 20% to 30% of orders were not met for this reason, he says.

 

But across the various scales of farming, there are a range of issues that need to be addressed. Hosur produces only Taj Mahal variety of Red Rose, while African flowers especially from Ethiopia and Kenya are of high quality and quantity, offering competitive prices helped by low freight charges for the international market.

 

'We are unable to match the quality of African flowers and the new varieties by other countries. We need to focus on R&D in order to produce new varieties,' says Mr. Prasad, who is also member of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

 

The rise in input costs by 150% is also having a cascading effect on over production and exports, according to him. 

 

According to Mr. Chowdary, the National Horticulture Board’s limitation of one-time subsidy for farmers is a big hurdle for expansion of greenhouses. China is adding more greenhouses to its production, while we limit subsidy to one-time limiting expansion of greenhouse, which is necessary to increase production, he says.

Famous to produce litchi, kinnow, galgal and lemon along with mango, now the Nurpur area of Kangra district will get a new identity from the cultivation of guava with the efforts of the horticulture department and the hard work of the farmers.

 

Under the Integrated Horticulture Development Mission, 3334 saplings of two advanced varieties of guava have been procured from Lucknow and made available to the farmers by the department in Pandrehar and Loharpura panchayats under Nurpur development block.

 

In both the panchayats, a new and successful experiment has been done by planting VNR and Shweta varieties of guava on 26-26 kanals of land. In which guava orchards have been prepared by forming two clusters by connecting four farmers with horticulture activities.

 

According to the officials, along with solar fencing of both the orchards, water facilities are available from a check dam and storage tank of one lakh litres each for irrigation, from where the irrigation system has been ensured by applying two drips to each plant. The yield has started in this orchard in the second year but keeping in view the growth of plants and better crop the fruits have been plucked, they said.

 

These orchards have been prepared in a completely organic way. While farmers will get two crops in a year from this, 300 grams to one kilogram of guava will be produced from VNR variety while 250 grams to 350 grams of guava will be produced from Shweta variety.

 

Officials said that after five years, when the plant is fully prepared, every farmer will earn an average income of Rs 50,000 from one kanal in a year. Especially the off-season crop that is between November to January, the farmers will be greatly benefited by getting good prices in the market.

 

Harbans Singh a farmer from Pandrehar panchayat says that he has developed guava orchard with the inspiration and cooperation of the Horticulture department. Along with the guava plants planted on the raised bed, mustard, peas, onions and garlic have been grown on the vacant land, which have yielded a good crop. 'Its cultivation will also benefit us a lot in the coming times,' he said.

 

Hitendra Patial, subject matter expert of Horticulture Department, says that under the Integrated Horticulture Development Mission, guava orchard has been prepared with the help of 75:25 scheme to the gardeners. He said that the officers of the department visit the orchards from time to time and give technical advice to the farmers regarding the care of the plants.

Use modern technologies in foodgrain management and Quality Control to bring more transparency and minimum human interface, said Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce & Industry while reviewing the operations of Food Corporation of India UP Region in Lucknow.

 

He called upon all the officers to send their suggestions to make the functioning of Food Corporation of India more efficient and modern. Shri Goyal also directed FCI officers to use their expertise in the field of foodgrain management and suggest the better design of godowns in order to create higher capacities in limited area of land.

 

While reviewing the issues related to wheat and paddy procurement, he directed that FCI should open more procurement centres covering almost all revenue districts so the farmers have option to sell their produce to FCI or to any other agency. He appreciated the use of E-POP machine at purchase centres in UP and advised that the same system should be implemented in other states also in order to bring more transparency in the procurement system from farmers.

 

Keeping in view of the demand, population and vast geographic area of Uttar Pradesh, the Union Minister directed that more quantity of Wheat should be offered in the Open Market Sale Scheme to control the market price of Wheat.

 

While reviewing the storage capacities in the state Shri Goyal said that all the godowns of FCI, both owned and hired should be of highest standard. All the Godowns of poor standard should immediately be upgraded by undertaking required repairs else the same should be considered for de hiring.

Norway's Trade and Investment Minister Jan Christian Vestre has stated that his country fully supports India's efforts in promoting multilateralism and a rules-based trade system. The minister praised the Indian government's leadership at the G-20 and highlighted the importance of continuing the process of globalization.

 

'That's an initiative our government supports 100 per cent and we also appreciate your leadership at G-20 and that you are so focussed on multilateralism and that we need rules-based trade system,' Vestre said in an interviewI.

 

The Norwegian minister, who was here on a two-day visit to India last week, said that some countries are turning away from the path of globalization.

 

'We see now that some countries are turning in different directions but it is very important now that we continue this process of globalization-free trade, sharing is caring and that will be beneficial for all of us so all the initiatives from the Indian side that can promote this approach to how should we organize our world will have full support from Norwegian side,' the minister emphasised.

 

He spoke highly of the 2nd India-Nordic summit which held last year, calling it a great success. He expressed pride in the joint statement made by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the five Nordic prime ministers, which he sees as a testament to the strong ties between the two regions.

 

'We really hope we can gather the prime ministers again, hopefully, next time in Norway, because another thing we will follow up on right now,' he added.

 

The minister stated that he feels that the ties have 'never been stronger than now' and there is a huge momentum driving them forward with 'more close cooperation' in various areas, including the maritime industry, hydrogen, renewable energy, batteries, rare earth minerals, technologies, and innovations.

 

Trade between India and Norway has doubled in the last three years, and the minister stated that there is huge potential for even more cooperation in the years to come.

 

'It is very important to connect companies from India with firms from Norway so that they can work more closely together, exploring new technologies, do common projects and there is a need to increase common investment. And there are a lot of things we can share such as competence, knowledge, and experience,' he underlined.

 

India and Norway have decided to follow up on their initiatives in the areas of fuel cell technologies, green ammonia, hydrogen, and charging infrastructure with 'specific action plans,' with the aim of translating their discussions into tangible actions.

The government on Monday said illegal subsidies by trade partners and other countries hurt Indian trade and business, and that corrective actions are taken in the form of invoking dispute settlement mechanisms. The Department of Commerce on February 9, 2023 had stated that illegal subsidies by trade partners and other countries hurt Indian trade and business, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh told the Lok Sabha.

 

'At a multilateral forum, the disciplines regulating the provision of subsidies and the use of countervailing measures to offset injury caused by subsidized imports are addressed in the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures,' he said in a written reply.

 

According to him, the subsidies whether they are prohibited (illegal) or actionable are determined by three major steps within the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures agreement.

 

Based on them, corrective actions are taken in the form of invoking dispute settlement mechanism, Singh said.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which was established in 1986 and works under the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, has achieved phenomenal success in the promotion of export of agricultural products in its successful journey of 37 years.

 

Started with a merely USD 0.6 billion export in 1987-88, the APEDA’s active intervention took the export of agricultural products to a new height of USD 19.69 billion till April-December 2022-23 and expanded the export basket to over 200 countries. In 2021-22, the APEDA exported agricultural products worth USD 24.77 billion.

 

The target given to APEDA in the current financial year (2022-23) is USD 23.56 billion, out of which 84% i.e. USD 19.69 billion has been achieved till December 2022, and the remaining target is expected to be completed within the stipulated time period.

 

According to the WTO Trade Data, India was ranked at 25th in 1986, which slipped further to 28th in 1987 and at 29th position in 1988. However, the ranking of India improved significantly as the county’s position moved to 10th rank in 2019 which improved further to 9th position in 2020 and at 8th rank in 2021.

 

Aiming to take export of agricultural products to a new level, APEDA promoted IT-enabled activities for ease of doing business in the promotion and development of exports from India. APEDA has undertaken initiatives like paperless office (re-engineering, digital signatures, electronic payment facility), APEDA Mobile App, phase-wise delivery of online services, monitoring and evaluation, uniform access, and virtual trade fair to make governance more efficient and effective.

 

APEDA’s intervention led to setting up and upgrading the infrastructure of the country for agri exports and augmenting quality of agri exports.

 

Keeping in mind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘vocal for local’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, APEDA has been focusing on promotion of exports of locally sourced GI (Geographical Indications) tagged as well as indigenous, ethnic agricultural products. New products and new export destinations have been identified and accordingly the trial shipments have been facilitated.

 

As on date, there are 417 registered GI products and of them around 150 GI tagged products are agricultural and food GI out of which more than 100 registered GI products fall under the category of APEDA scheduled products (Cereals, Fresh Fruits and vegetables, processed products, etc).

 

Some of ethnic and GI tagged products exported by India include dragon fruit, patented village rice, jackfruit, jamun, Burmese grapes, dehydrated mahua flowers, and puffed rice. GI varieties of mango, GI tagged Shahi litchi, Bhalia wheat, Madurai malli, king chilli, Mihidana, Sitabhog, Dahanu Gholvad Sapota, Jalgaon banana, Vazhakulam pineapple, Marayoor jaggery, Khasi Mandarin (GI) from Meghalaya, etc.

 

The Agriculture Export Policy stepped in as an Institutional mechanism in 2018 for promotion of agricultural exports in the States for the first time with a focus on agriculture export-oriented production, export promotion, better farmer realization and synchronization with the policies and programmes of Govt. of India laying emphasis on farmer-centric approach.

 

A Market Intelligence Cell has been constituted in APEDA and the activity of dissemination of E-market intelligence reports comprising detailed market analysis has commenced.

 

A Farmer Connect Portal has also been set up by APEDA on its website for providing a platform for FPOs/FPCs, Cooperatives to interact with exporters.

 

Working in tandem with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, APEDA has taken a giant leap in making landlocked Purvanchal a new destination of agri export activities by developing Varanasi Agri – Export Hub (VAEH) in a record time. The Varanasi region, where almost NIL export activities were happening due to lack of basic infrastructure, is now abuzz with agri export activities.

 

After the intervention of APEDA, Varanasi region has recorded exemplary changes in the export scenario and registered many first-of-its-kind achievements in a very short span of time from Purvanchal region. The agri exports from Himalayan belt, J&K to Ladakh was an achievement in development of region with regard to agri exports. The landlocked states such as North Eastern Region, Uttar Pradesh, Uttranchal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh spurred in agri exports when their products were sourced from farmers and displayed in the retail chains of importing countries.

 

Non-Basmati Rice has emerged as India’s top export item among the many agricultural and processed food product exports under APEDA basket. With the export of USD 4663 million in nine months of 2022-23, it is recorded a significant contribution in the current fiscal. Other top products in the APEDA export basket in 2022-23 is Basmati Rice, Cereal preparations & Miscellaneous processed items and meat, dairy & poultry products.

 

As a part of the Indian Millets promotion on web, APEDA has designed, developed and launched the Millets Portal. It has also created a separate portal Indian Millet Exchange to promote millets.

 

Agricultural sector is one of the key sectors of the Indian economy as it provides direct employment to about 65% of the working population in the country and also forms the basis of major key industries. Agriculture contributes about 20.2% to GDP and about 14.1% India’s export of agricultural products during 2020-21.

 

Realising the importance of agriculture and processed food products export from the country, the Government in 1986 had set up Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) through an Act of Parliament under the Commerce Ministry. Then the newly created body replaced the then existing Processed Food Export Promotion Council (PFEPC). The APEDA had been undertaking most of the activities as per its mandate and scope of work allocated spanning its 14 product categories which mainly includes the sector of fruits and vegetables, processed fruits and vegetables, animal, dairy and poultry products and cereals.

 

Over the years, APEDA has been handling issues concerning product safety, quality and global promotion for all its product categories, compromising more than 700 products. With the agriculture awareness about environmental and food safety issues in the importing countries and constantly additional food norms and consumer preferences, APEDA has been constantly sensitizing its trade exporters about export requirements and also providing assistance for setting up of infrastructure facilities for common uses and as well as by the concerned member exporters for having export oriented production for exports from the country.

 

Considering the importance of food safety and traceability required by the importing countries of developed economies, APEDA took a number of initiatives in the area of quality development such as preparation of standards, procedures for identified potential products, development of residue monitoring protocol, recognition of laboratories and implementation of traceability systems, etc.

 

The Government of India through the Ministry of Commerce initiated development of National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), which was approved by the Government on May 2, 2001 and APEDA designated as Secretariat for NPOP.

 

Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) organizes workshops/capacity building programmes for stakeholders across the country.

 

The visionary approach, aggressive and consistent efforts of APEDA has enabled India to position itself as a consistent and quality supplier of agri products.

Raw coffee prices have rebound over the past few days, providing some relief to beleaguered growers. As a result, a majority of the growers are resorting to more of 'consignment sales' rather than the 'outright sale' of the beans.

 

Through consignment sales, growers are storing their produce with the coffee curers, anticipating prices to go up in the days ahead. The firm trend in prices in recent days points to the crop being lower than initial estimates, stakeholders said.

 

Farmgate prices of raw coffee such as arabica parchment, which ruled at Rs.13,000-13,500 per 50-kg bag at the end of December, are now hovering at around Rs.14,750-15,100, an increase of around 11-13 per cent. Similarly, arabica cherry prices are currently ruling at Rs.7,200-7,450 (Rs.6,450-7,000 as of December 29, 2022).

 

Robusta parchment prices are hovering around Rs.9,800-10,300 levels (Rs.8,000-8,300), while the robusta cherry is ruling around Rs.4,600-4,900 (Rs.4,300-4,550).

 

Battling challenges

The harvest of the mild variety arabicas is almost over, while growers are busy picking the robusta beans across the key growing regions of Karnataka, which accounts for over two-thirds of the country’s coffee output. In the early part of the harvest season during December, growers were disappointed as prices had eased from the October highs, but the latest rebound has given them some relief. Coffee growers have been battling challenges such as changing climate patterns, higher input costs and shortage of trained labour.

 

'Arabica production is down compared to the initial estimates as a majority of the growers have harvested a lower crop. However, compared to the last year, the arabica crop will be slightly more this year. The robusta crop is down. In fact, robusta prices are ruling quite firm as the world market is also sensing some shortfall,' said Mahesh Shashidar, Chairman, Karnataka Planters Association, the apex coffee growers body.

 

Bose Mandanna, a large grower in Suntikoppa near Madikeri, attributed the improvement in prices to the demand situation. 'The crop is not that great as there was damage due to excessive rains and those who have commitments are trying to cover up,' Mandanna said.

 

Need-based buying

Ramesh Rajah, President, Coffee Exporters Association, said a lower arabica crop was the reason for higher prices, even as the export demand is slow as overseas buyers are resorting to more need-based buying. 'Order books are low from what we hear,' Rajah said, adding that the impact of the recession in the West on coffee consumption is not clear.

 

Rajah said the coffee arrivals are slow this year compared to normal years as growers, expecting prices to firm up further, are resorting to more of consignment sales. Coffee arrivals, in a normal year peak during February. 'This year the proportion of coffee going into storage and not being sold, seems to be very high' Rajah said.

 

As 97-98 per cent of the coffee growers lack storage space, they tend to store their produce with curing works. 'The proportion of consignment sales are more this year as compared to the outright sales,' said a coffee curer in Chikkamagaluru. In a consignment sale, growers store their produce with the curing works and sell it at a later date .

 

The state-run Coffee Board in its post monsoon estimate had pegged higher the 2022-23 crop in Karnataka. Arabica output is seen higher at 72,945 tonnes (68,025 tonnes in the previous year) and robusta at 1.81 lakh tonnes (1.73 lakh tonnes). Overall Indian crop for the 2022-23 season is seen higher at 3.60 lakh tonnes as per Board’s post monsoon estimates over previous year’s final estimate of 3.42 lakh tonnes.

India’s basmati rice exports surged by 17% in volume during the first three quarters of the current fiscal year (ended Dec. 21, 2022), while exporters are earning at least 20% more on average in overseas markets as Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE together bought half of India’s total shipments of the aromatic rice. 

 

According to the latest data from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, the shipment of basmati rice increased to 3.2 million tons in April–December 2022 from 2.74 million tons in the year-ago period. However, in terms of value, the surge was 40% to $3.34 billion from $2.38 billion. 

 

Due to the depreciation of rupee, the growth is even higher – 50.5% - in Indian currency, at 26,591 crore rupees against 17,664 crore rupees. In fact, export realization in basmati rice increased to $1,044 per ton this fiscal from $868 per ton a year ago.

 

Prices did not increase from the average received ($1,057) in April-September, contrary to what was expected. Though traders and exporters paid record-high prices for basmati rice this year and anticipated a huge jump, it is a win-win for all stakeholders — farmers, exporters and consumers.

 

Recalling the 2013-14 price spiral in basmati, an industry source said exports may not rise that high over the next two months as contracts are happening at an average of $1,100-1,200/ton, though some are getting premiums and selling at $1,350 for limited quantities. 

 

In the fiscal 2013–14, India exported 3.76 million tons of basmati rice worth $4.87 billion, a record high in value terms, realizing an average of $1,295 per ton. 

 

'That was an exceptional year as Iran had bought nearly 1.5 million tons of basmati from India whereas the traditional top buyer Saudi Arabia imported around 0.8 million tons,' said an industry veteran who has been tracking basmati prices for the last two decades.