‘Export of processed foods, agri products rose to 27%’
New Delhi: Expressing confidence over the rise in export activities in the last nine years, Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal on Saturday said that India has witnessed a significant growth in the food processing sector after 2014 as the export of processed food and agricultural products has increased to 27 per cent from 14 per cent in the last few years.
While talking to Millennium Post, the Commerce Secretary said, “We have a huge growth potential in the export of processed as well as agricultural products. We need to focus on export of value-added products as there are several countries that import raw agricultural produce from India and export to potential international markets after adding value to it.”
The second edition of WFI-2023 is being organised by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries at Bharat Mandapam, where over 1,000 international importers from 80 countries participated. The mega food show is scheduled to conclude on Sunday.
“In India, there are different varieties of peanuts and each variety has specific protein content. So instead of exporting raw peanut, there is a need to extract protein from peanuts and export it to potential international market after adding value to it as it has huge export potential,” Barthwal said on the sidelines of his visit to some of the pavilions, including APEDA and MPEDA, at the World Food India -2023. “Similarly, the export potential of processed crab meat is huge. The processed food industry is growing rapidly. As per estimates, it is expected to reach $470 billion in the next couple of years,” said Barthwal, who is 1989-batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
On the occasion, the Commerce Secretary also interacted with international importers. The interaction was facilitated by APEDA at its pavilion at the WFI-2023 in the presence of apex export promotion body’s chairman Abhishek Dev.
Furthermore, APEDA has inked MoUs with global retail giant LuLu Hypermarket LLC to boost exports of agricultural products to the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCCs).
Besides, the apex body for agricultural export promotion has inked an agreement with Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) to encourage export of agricultural products to Saudi Arabia by ensuring health and technical requirements of the importing country.
According to APEDA chairman Abhishek Dev, the MoU is aimed at promoting Brand India globally as both the groups have forged an alliance to promote APEDA scheduled Indian agricultural products in the international market.
