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Sudha Menon

Pune , Feb. 13

EVER been in a discussion about the influx of foreign fruits in our markets and the fact that our fruits and vegetables are viewed suspiciously and kept away from their markets by a whole lot of countries? The situation can well be rectified with some hard bargaining and investing in our risk analysis team and the infrastructure available to them, says APEDA Director, Mr S. Dave.

Mr Dave, who was in Pune recently to attend an international seminar on grapes, was faced with a barrage of queries from journalists about the huge influx of fruits from across the world and the fact that India faced market access issues with any number of these countries.

"We need to strengthen our quarantine department and invest heavily in our infrastructure and team building for pest risk analysis of the stuff that is coming into our markets.

"After all, we don't know what are the pests and diseases these imports might be brining into our soil," Mr Dave said.

Food industry sources talk about large consignments of honey that found its way into India some time ago with a price tag of just Rs 50/kg as opposed to India's manufacturing cost of Rs 90/kg .

Sources maintain that a number of domestic players actually bought cheap and blended with their own products, only to realise later that the imported honey was found to contain large amounts of antibiotics.

"The imports have slowed down after the domestic industry brought this to the attention of the Government and called for urgent action," sources said.

Meanwhile, even as countries such as China, Australia and even the US continue to have reservations about providing market access to fruits/vegetables from India, things seem to be improving in a small way for Indian exporters.

Japan, which has remained closed to India's produce for over two decades, will soon be accessible to Indian exporters with mangoes being the first to wing its way there.

Mr Dave said a team from Japan was in the Capital evaluating our protocol for dis-infection of mangoes to ensure safety of the product. "By May-June our mangoes can well be available in Japan," Mr Dave said.

The US market, meanwhile, has quarantine concerns about the Indian mango and, interestingly, is now in discussions not for destroying fruit flies/pests found in the fruit but to sterilise them so that they do not multiply. A US team was recently in India and among other places, visited Lasalgaon, renowned for its mangoes .

"The US quarantine team is open to the idea of irradiation and vapour heat treatment to ensure safety of mangoes," Mr Dave said.

With Indian farmers increasingly working at improving their farming technique and the Union Agriculture Ministry mooting the idea of an India Good Agricultural Practices (India GAP), exports of fruits and vegetables could well take a quantum leap over the next few years. While Indian mangoes and grapes have already found favour in some countries, potential exports out of the country include lychees, chickoos and pomegranates.

APEDA, which actually spear-headed the adoption of best practices in grape cultivation, is now looking at repeating the success with pomegranates.

"The residual monitoring document for pomegranates will be ready in a month and I propose to hold a meeting with growers two months from now. After all, it is the second most important fruit after grapes for exports," Mr Dave said.

More Stories on : Standards & Benchmarks | Exports & Imports | Foods & Food Processing | Horticulture/Fruits & Vegetables

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