Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) in its endeavor to promote exports from agriculture produce rich areas of the country has sent the first trial shipment of vegetables by sea route to Dubai from Varanasi. The 1st trial shipment of one container of fresh vegetables was flagged off by Paban Kumar Borthakur, APEDA Chairman and Deepak Agrawal, Commissioner of Varanasi in presence of Kaushal Raj Sharma, District Magistrate.
To fast-track the activities taken up for the Export Hub at Varanasi, a project office of APEDA is being established at Varanasi for co-ordination & facilitation of all activities. A committee has also been formed under the chairmanship of Commissioner Varanasi Division, with all the stakeholders. The main task of the committee would be to supervise & fast-track the development of infrastructure, strengthening backward linkage & supply chain for export of agriculture products to international market.
APEDA together with the Uttar Pradesh government has organised for sending of a trial shipment of one container of fresh vegetables via sea route to Dubai. The shipment included 14 metric tonnes of fresh vegetables exported by an export house from Mumbai supported by VAFA and sourced from three FPOs of Ghazipur & Varanasi.
Considering the potential of production of vegetables & fruits in Varanasi comprising of 5 districts namely, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Ghazipur, Mirzapur & Sant Ravidas Nagar, APEDA is in the process of establishing agriculture export hubs in these districts.
In its efforts for setting up of Agri Export hub, APEDA organised an Export Promotion Programme & Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) for fresh vegetables this year in Varanasi which was attended by 100 farmers of the region and exporters from Kolkata, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad. The BSM provided a platform to link Farmer Producer Organisations and progressive farmers to well-known exporters. The interaction between exporters & farmers of the region was very useful in terms of understanding the potential of the region, quality of vegetables & fruits produced, infrastructure required & convincing the cultivators in cultivating export oriented variety of crops and discussing the concerns of both the stakeholders.
The produce consolidated from Farmer Producer Organisations have been processed & packed at Concor Cargo facility, Rajatalab, Varanasi that was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in July 2018.
Fresh vegetables & Fruits Exporters Association (VAFA), Mumbai signed a MoU with four FPOs for sourcing of fresh fruits and vegetables for export to international markets. FPOs have been engaged to ensure supply of quality produce from the region. The idea of setting up the Agri Export hub in Varanasi is now yielding results with sending of the 1st trial shipment of vegetables sourced from FPOs in Varanasi region to Dubai by sea route for the first time.
