The Hindu Business Line : Oilseed exports up sharply

A COMBINATION of farmers' education, scientific water management, strong input delivery system and research is the way forward for raising oilseeds productivity and generating genuine export surpluses," Mr Kishore Tanna, Chairman, Indian Oilseeds and Produce Exporters Association (IOPEA), said.

Addressing the annual gathering of the association members, he rued that quality issues continued to stymie growth in the export of groundnut kernels and sesameseeds, both of which had tremendous potential in the overseas markets.

A major quality problem for groundnut is the aflatoxin — a mouldy growth that is known to be potentially carcinogenic — on which EU has strict tolerance limits and imports are closely monitored for suspect quality.

The rising number of rapid alerts against Indian groundnut export consignments in EU countries was a matter of serious concern, he pointed out, adding that exporters must specifically mention in their contracts and shipping documents whether the goods were meant for direct consumption, for further processing or for use as bird feed.

Pesticide residue problem continues to haunt sesameseed shipments, especially to Japan, world's largest importer. Japan is extremely reluctant to buy from India for fear of contamination with banned pesticides such as DDT and BHC.

On the strength of India's regular exports to fastidious markets such as US, Mr Tanna raised doubts about the genuineness of Japan's objections and exhorted the Indian Government to take up the issue with the Japanese government.

"For processing sesameseeds, India today has several plants of international standard implementing HACCP procedures. They are geared to meeting pesticide residue and microbiological parameters in hulled sesamum," Mr Tanna pointed out.

Fiscal 2003-04 turned out to be one of the best in recent years for export of oilseeds and oils such as groundnut kernel, sesamum and nigerseed from the country as also groundnut oil and sesame oil.

Shipment of various oilseeds including small parcels of safflowerseed (Kardi), sunflowerseed and mustard aggregated 3.98 lakh tonnes valued at Rs 1,322 crore, sharply up from 2.22 l.t. worth Rs 618 crore the previous year.

"More heartening than the increase of 79 per cent in quantity terms is the 114 per cent rise in value of export earnings. Notably, groundnut exports registered 170 per cent rise and sesamum 76 per cent," Mr Tanna commented.

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