The new agriculture export policy may not be able to boost exports of fruits and vegetables if associated government agencies such as the APEDA and the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage (DPPQS) are not proactive.

According to Ankush Saha, Joint Secretary, West Bengal Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (FFV) Exporters Welfare Association, there has been a continuous decline in exports of fruits and vegetables from West Bengal in the last 4-5 years.

“I don’t think that the new policy will be of much help to farmers unless organisations such as the APEDA and DPPQS take adequate measures to be proactive in their operations and promote exports, which unfortunately has not been the case so far,” felt Saha.

The European Commission had prohibited import of certain plants and vegetables from India in 2014. However, this ban was lifted in September 2016 and an order to resume exports of vegetables such as teasel gourd, bitter gourd, snake gourd and brinjal among others was issued. Though two years have passed, exports have not resumed.

“DPPQS is not ready to issue the Phyto-Sanitary Cerificate and is unwilling to inspect the product. APEDA has also not taken adequate steps to facilitate the exports,” he alleged in an interaction with BusinessLine .

According to Saha, nearly 3,000 kg of vegetables were exported from West Bengal to Europe, Dubai and Abu Dhabi every day before the ban. That has now come down to near zero, though the ban has been revoked. This apart, the State also used to export ₹50-60 crore of betel leaves to the EU. However, following microbiological contamination in a consignment and APEDA suspending the exporter, exports of betel leaves from Kolkata have come to a standstill since September 2017.

“I feel the APEDA should do a root cause analysis to find out the reason forthe contamination. Farmers should also be trained,” he said.

According to APEDA, exports of fresh fruit and vegetables registered a 1.59 per cent growth in rupee terms for the April-September 2019 period at ₹4,298 crore as against ₹4,230 crore in the corresponding period last year. In dollar terms, the fresh fruit and vegetable exports registered a 3.83 per cent decline for the same period at $632 million ($657 million).

The United Arab Emirates is the largest buyer of India's fresh fruits and vegetables accounting for 26 per cent and 15 per cent of exports, respectively. In the fresh fruit category, UK is the second largest buyer accounting for 7.2 per cent of total exports followed by Saudi Arabia at 7.1 per cent. In the fresh vegetable segment, Bangladesh is the second largest buyer after UAE, accounting for 12.7 per cent of India's exports, followed by Malaysia at 12.3 per cent.

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