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The Government may exempt organic products from export ban imposed on farm commodities from time to time to check the spiralling prices in the domestic market.
The move, when implemented, is expected to give a boost to exports from the fast-growing sector by making supplies in the overseas market more predictable.
The Commerce Department is formulating a proposal for exempting organic products from export ban on the lines of the recent exemption given to processed food and is expected to soon discuss it with other ministries concerned.
Organic food is grown without the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and is in great demand all over Europe, the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa and West Asia.
Exports of organic products jumped almost three times to touch $360 million in 2011-12 from $130 million in the previous year.
“Buyers of our organic products will have more confidence in their suppliers if they know for certain that exports will not stop due to Government intervention. Continuous exports will also encourage farmers to grow more organic food,” the official said.
Export of organic food products from the country include basmati rice, pulses, honey, tea, spices, coffee, oil seeds and fruits, according to farm products export body APEDA,
Exempting organic produce from export ban would not harm the interest of domestic consumers at the time of shortage of supply in the local markets as it is a minuscule part of total farm exports.
Exports of agricultural commodities monitored by APEDA in 2011-12 was a whopping Rs 82,000 crore ($15 billion) compared with organic products exports at Rs 1,800 crore ($360 billion).
In January, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs exempted processed food and value-added agricultural produce from export ban.
These include wheat of meslin flour, cereal flours, meal pellets and grains, milk products including casein and its products, butter and other fat derivatives from milk and dairy spread, cheese and curd and value added products of onion and peanut butter.
“We want the same logic to be extended to organic products. The Commerce Department is preparing a paper on why organic products should be exempted from export ban and it would be discussed with other ministries soon,” the official said.
Organic food is gaining ground in many parts of the world. According to US-based environmental research organisation The Worldwatch Institute, which has carried out a study on the growth of global organic agricultural practices, acreage under organic farms has trebled globally since 1999 to 37 million hectares despite a dip in 2009-10.
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