Centre Plans to Increase Food Exports to $23.56 billion in FY23

APEDA, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's export promotion body for agricultural products, has set a $23.56 billion export target for Fiscal Year 2022-23. (FY23). To meet the export target, it will organise over 300 events this year. APEDA visions to educate food exporters about the sanitary & phytosanitary metrics that are used as major technical trade barriers, particularly by developed countries, and to raise awareness about the impact of these factors on human life via various online platforms, including social media platforms.

APEDA's outreach strategy includes establishing a strong and consistent connection with exporters, farmers, Agri-preneurs, food processors, logistics providers, foreign exchange management companies, and others through various mainstream publications and electronic channels, as well as prominent social media platforms, by highlighting a list of potential products with high export potential. The ministry intends to publicise a list of potential markets via social media platforms. The APEDA exporter portal will highlight country-specific and product-specific requirements for Indian exporters to potentially meet.

Furthermore, the authority intends to provide faster updates to Indian exporters about importing countries' requirements; additionally, the stakeholders and product-specific benefits of India's exports to its preferential partner countries will be highlighted in order to capture more opportunities in partner countries.

To attract more exporters, APEDA export procedures will be distributed through various platforms, particularly electronic and print media. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry's apex agro export promotion body also proposes to organise a programme for Agri-preneurs to harvest export opportunities from India's diverse agro-climatic zones.

Farmers, students, and officials, among others, would be educated on agriculture export procedures, guidelines, fiscal and financial incentives from the government, sanitary and phytosanitary issues in the supply chain, such as residues, maximum residue limits, traceability, and so on. Because India has a high potential for exporting Geographical Indication (GI) tagged products due to their therapeutic and health benefits, orientation programmes for GI products in the North Eastern Region have been planned (NER).

There are over 140 GI-registered agricultural products in India, with 123 of those being APEDA-scheduled products. Given India's biodiversity, it has been planned to hold a series of national and international exhibitions and workshops to promote the export of GI products around the world by bringing universities, organizations, NGOs, and other knowledge partners on board as national and international knowledge partners.

It has been proposed in the outreach strategy to form an association of GI registry owners for better coordination and to bridge the gap between GI stakeholders and the government. The move is intended to ensure the integrity and authenticity of GI products, as there is an organisation for registering GI products but no agency to verify their authenticity.