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Vishwanath Kulkarni

Bangalore , June 30

EXPORTS of agricultural and processed foods grew by 15.6 per cent in the year ended March 2005 to Rs 16,559 crore over the previous year's Rs 14,324 crore, exceeding the target of Rs 16,213 crore set by the Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (Apeda).

Mr K.S. Money, Chairman, Apeda, said the export growth in dollar terms was at 17.14 per cent at $3,696 million as compared to $3,155 million in the previous year.

Exports of scheduled products, including livestock products, floriculture and vegetables, grew by 23 per cent during the year, whereas the exports of non-scheduled products such as basmati rice, wheat and cereals grew by 5.6 per cent.

Exports of basmati rice grew by 39.42 per cent whereas cereals grew by 97.98 per cent over the previous year. Wheat exports declined by 38 per cent.

Exports of dairy, poultry, meat and meat products grew 12 per cent to Rs 2,404 crore as compared to Rs 2,101.93 crore in the previous year.

Mr Money said certain products such as rice especially the basmati, poultry and meat products had great export potential.

Apeda was on the lookout out for newer markets even while focussing on increasing share in the existing markets. "We want to maintain and grow our market share in these products," he added.

Apeda was exploring new market opportunities in countries, such as Africa, for basmati rice.

"We are also looking out for markets in Russia, Japan and Thailand for poultry, meat and meat products," he said.

Mr Money said the recent controversy surrounding the presence of Sudan dye in chilli and chilli product exports had impacted the exports of various processed foods.

"Shipments of processed foods such as pickles have slowed as testing of samples has been made more stringent," he said.

"Despite this temporary blip, we expect the exports of agri and processed foods to sustain the growth momentum at around 15 per cent in the current financial year," he added.

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