APEDA to widen its scope

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is exploring newer avenues after earnings from basmati and bovine meat. According to data available with APEDA, export earnings from agricultural and processed food products have drastically dropped from $21.5 billion in 2014-15 to $16.25 billion in 2016-17, thanks to declining basmati rice and bovine meat exports.While the export value of bovine meat dwindled from a high of $4.78 billion to $4.07 billion in 2015-16 and $3.93 billion in 2016-17, basmati exports plummeted from $4.52 billion in 2014-15 to $3.23 billion in 2016-17.

An attempt is being made to identify fruits and vegetables that can be explored for exports. As it has already done with grapes in Nashik, APEDA has identified new clusters in seven states that can be tapped to produce export quality fruits and vegetables. APEDA has already identified clusters in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Telangana and West Bengal. The APEDA Chairman gave the example of how the authority helped develop infrastructure for the export of grapes from Nashik in the past. APEDA plans to help develop similar infrastructure in these newly identified clusters and will be involved with farmer producer groups for this, he said.