Fruit & vegetable sector to be growth driver: S K Sahai

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Fruit and vegetable is an emerging sector that holds a lot of opportunity for both agriculture and industry and is going to be the driving force of Indian economy, Subodh Kant Sahai, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries said addressing the the 'Fruit & Vegetable Summit 2008' organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry ( CII ) along with the Ministry of Agriculture and its affiliated institutions, the National Horticulture Mission and the National Horticulture Board that concluded in New Delhi today.

 

India is the world's second largest producer of fruit and vegetable. Yet despite the changing food habits, "Rs 50,000 crore worth of produce gets wasted every year in the absence of a proper value chain for food processing," he said and added that his ministry has made food processing a tax-less industry to encourage the industry to invest in this sector. "While the industrial growth rate was stagnating, food processing industry was growing at 13 per cent," Sahai said and added that the challenge was to reach these benefits to the farmers.

 

The government is working on 30 cold chain routes countrywide to enable integration of the sector from farmgate to the retail outlet, he said. His ministry will soon announce the setting up of 30 mega food parks in all the states so that cold chain facilities are available in catchment areas comprising not more than three to four districts, the minister added. 

 

The summit has been a foundation stone of a great journey of developing globally competitive value chains in the F&V sector and catalysing holistic policy development and creating an interface among the industry, the government and the farmers, said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Chairman CII National Council on Agriculture and Vice Chairman Bharti Enterprises. Following wideranging discussions during the wo-day summit, it was agreed that organised retail backed up by integrated value chains are the key to growth, he said.

 

CII has set up an Agri Council and a special joint task force with the government and the industry to work out a strategy paper listing key imperatives  such as scalability, integrated value chains, price competitiveness and cluster approach for farming, for making the sector competitive in global and domestic markets, Mittal said. 

 

Earlier, a session on 'Fruit and Vegetable export: The Multidimensional Challenge' identified three major challenges in the export of fruit and vegetable sector - traceability, conformity with global standards and market access. The session specifically focused on policy and other interventions required for boosting trade.

 

Speaking on Need for Rationalisation and Harmonisation of Export Procedures, V K Gupta, Advisor, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, said, "Tariffs are falling but developing countries such as India are still facing difficulty in accessing developed markets. On the export front the biggest hurdle for growth has been the mismatch in quality between what is produced in India and what is required in the importing country. Many Consignments have rejected at the destination port either due to poor quality. We need to change the attitude and produce what is marketable." Traceability is an important tool for benchmarking quality, he added.

 

Speaking on Integration of Export Value Chains, Raman Ahuja, Head, Business Development and International Sales, Field Fresh Foods, said, "India has the potential to become a major fruit and vegetable exporter. We should focus on improving yield standards. Despite numerous constraints, we are exporting fruit and vegetable. We need to address problems associated with supply chain and cold storage." Ahuja called on the players of fruit and vegetable industry to focus on customer satisfaction and acquire new skills.              

 

Speaking on the need for Rationalisation and Harmonisation of Export Procedures, V Sridhar, Assistant Vice-President, Food and Agribusiness Strategic Advisory and Research, YES Bank , said, "Multiple agencies are involved in the regulation of exports of fruit and vegetable. While a large part of information content requirement for each regulatory agency is the same, information format stipulations are found to vary among them. Same information are being presented to various agencies. Collection of charges separately by each regulatory agency has led to increased documentation and overhead charges."

 

Earlier, initiating the discussion, Asit Tripathy, Chairman, APEDA, said, "With required skill, cheap labour and various climate zones, India has the potential to emerge a leader in fruit and vegetable exports."  

 

Sourced From: Confederation of Indian Industry