‘NE states witnessed 85.34 pc growth in export of agricultural products’

NEW DELHI, July 12: Northeastern states have witnessed an 85.34 per cent growth in the export of agricultural products in the last six years, according to Agricultural and Processed Food Products Development and Authority (APEDA) Chairman M Angamuthu here on Tuesday.
In monetary terms, the export has increased from USD 2.52 million in 2016-17 to USD 17.2 million in 2021-22. The major destination of export has been Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Middle East, the UK and Europe, he said in an official statement.
To boost the export of horticulture products grown in Northeastern states, the government is now up with a robust strategy to promote locally produced agricultural products to the international markets. The North East region is geopolitically important as it shares international boundaries with China, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh, making it the potential hub for the export of agricultural produce to neighbouring countries as well as other foreign destinations.
As a result, there has been a significant increase in the export of agricultural produce from Northeastern states like Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya in the last few years.
To provide potential market linkages, the APEDA, under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, organised field visits of importers to have first-hand information about the qualitative cultivation practices being followed by farmers.
Importers were mostly from the Middle East, far Eastern countries, and European nations and Australia, the statement said.
In the last three years, APEDA organised 136 capacity-building programmes on export awareness across the different parts of NER. Apart from capacity-building initiatives, APEDA has facilitated 22 international buyer-seller meets as well as trade fairs in NER in the last three years.
APEDA has also signed an MoU with Assam Agriculture University, Jorhat, to conduct various training programmes on pre-harvest and post-harvest management and other research activities for the promotion of export from the region.
The APEDA promoted GI products from the Northeastern region like Bhut Jolokia and Assam lemon, and drew the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had mentioned it during his Maan Ki Baat programme.
“Assam and the other states of North East have a favourable climatic condition and the soil type for growing almost all agricultural and horticultural crops. There are possibilities of enhancing exports from the region,” Angamuthu said.
APEDA also extended its support for branding and promoting Northeastern products such as kiwi wine, processed foods, carrying out a wet sampling of joha rice, pulao and black rice kheer.
Training programmes are being held in different states of the Northeast in association with the Central Food Technology Research Institute, Mysore (CFTRI) and Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT). APEDA also facilitated a workshop on Food Quality and Safety Management for Export of Processed Food Products from North East at Ri-Bhoi in Meghalaya and Dibrugarh in Assam for boosting exports of agricultural and processed food products from NER through sustainable food value chain development.
With the APEDA’s intervention, Tripura’s jackfruit and Nagaland’s king chilli were exported to London through a local exporter for the first time.
Also, Assam’s local fruit called Leteku (Burmese Grape) was exported to Dubai and Assam’s betel leaves are being regularly exported to London, the statement added.