APEDA Participates in 28th Edition of Gulfood 2023 at UAE

The Agricultural and Process Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) is taking part in the 28th edition of Gulfood 2023, which is being held in the United Arab Emirates. APEDA has participated in Gulfood for many years, bringing a large contingent of suppliers from the Indian diaspora.

More than 50 Indian exporters from various categories, including women entrepreneurs, start-ups, merchants, and manufacturers, are showcasing agricultural, dairy, pulses, and meat-based produce with a focus on millet and its products through the APEDA pavilion.

The India Pavilion was inaugurated by Pashupati Kumar Paras, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries along with Ambassador of India H. E. Sunjay Sudhir, Dr. M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, Sanoj Kumar Jha, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Muktanand Agarwal, Director, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer's Welfare, officers of APEDA, Indian Embassy, CGI, other stakeholders from Centre & State & exporters.

APEDA organizes promotions, tasting campaigns, and sampling of millet products and biriyani, as well as arranging B2B interactions between start-ups and exporters with identified Supermarkets, awareness and capacity-building programmes for start-ups, FPOs, and exporters in millets-producing states, and mobilizing start-ups for export promotion of value-added products in the Ready-to-Eat (RTE) and Ready-to-Serve (RTS) categories such as flour, noodles, pasta, flakes, pancakes, ready to eat breakfast cereals mix, biscuits, cookies, snacks, sweets, ready to cook mixes like dosa, idly, khichri, daliya, etc.

Gulfood, which will be held from the 20th to the 24th of February 2023, will feature 5000 companies from 125 countries. During the International Year of Millets (IYOM) 2023, India will participate in GULFOOD with the theme of millets export promotion and value-added products. Around 100 exporter delegations are being promoted by the Indian Pavilion. A Millet gallery has been created by start-ups and new entrepreneurs to showcase Millets and their products and to provide them with a platform to showcase their high-quality products. The Indian pavilion at Gulfood 2023 is one of the largest pavilions at the show, catering to food product exports to over 125 countries attending the event.

APEDA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of the UAE through its nodal agency Al Dhara Holding SP LLC to procure food and food products from India and sell to buyers in the UAE as part of the UAE's food security strategy, and DP World FZE, a subsidiary of the Government of Dubai (A leading provider of worldwide smart end-to-end supply chain logistics, enabling the flow of trade across the globe). The MoU signed by both countries will promote Indian exports to the UAE and strengthen bilateral trade.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is India's major export destination for the majority of agricultural and processed food product sectors, including floriculture, fruits and vegetable seeds, fresh onions, fresh vegetables, walnuts, fresh mangoes, fresh grapes, other fresh fruits, betel leaves & nuts, processed fruits, juices & nuts, pulses, sheep/goat meat, processed meat, dairy products, natural honey, groundnuts, jaggery & confectionery, cereal preparations, milled products, APEDA's scheduled product exports to the UAE market increased from $69.52 million in 1987-88 to $1604.76 million in 2021-22.

India and the UAE have been trading partners for many decades. India is the world's largest producer of a variety of agricultural products and has been meeting the UAE's global import requirements for agricultural products.

With a 2.33% share of global agri exports, India ranks eighth. In 2021-22, India's total agri export is estimated to be USD 50 billion, with APEDA's agricultural and processed food products export accounting for more than 51% of the Indian agri export basket. The UAE is one of our most important export destinations. The major products exported by India during the reference period are non basmati rice, basmati rice, buffalo meat, wheat, maize, miscellaneous processed items, cereal preparations, groundnuts, processed vegetables, processed fruits, juices & nuts, fresh onions, and so on.

On February 18, 2022, the two countries signed the historic Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which strengthened the strategic partnership and aimed to increase merchandise trade between the countries to $100 billion over the next five years.

The top ten potential products exported to UAE have been changing trends, paving the way for new additional products in the last few decades, conclusively providing ample opportunities for a range of 15-20 products to establish a strong foothold in the UAE market. GULFOOD 2023 serves as a gateway to the GCC, West Asia, Europe, and Africa.