Exports of agricultural and processed food products from the country rose by 14 percent in the April-June period of the current financial year, according to official data released last week. Exports of these product categories -which fall under the ambit of APEDA and do not include tea, coffee, spices, cotton and marine products- reached $5987 million in the first three months of FY 2022-23 against $5256 million over the same period of the last fiscal.

This latest data set sounds encouraging, particularly in the background of the huge potential India has in this sector and also the ongoing efforts of the government to encourage exports of agricultural and processed food from different states of the country. In such an example, APEDA organised 136 capacity building programmes on export awareness across the north-eastern region in the last three years. No doubt, such efforts are fetching results, gradually.

According to a report, Assam – one of the eight states in the NE region - saw 80 percent growth in exports of agriculture products in the last six years. Last week, 600 KGs of lemon were exported to London from the state, as a part of an export commitment for about 80 tonnes of the fruit over the next two months. These are small but incremental steps, and considering the geographic proximity of the NE region with Southeast Asian countries, this trend is promising.

At an exporter outreach programme recently organised by APEDA, in Amravati (Maharashtra), a Union Minister rightly said that the Vidarbha region has huge potential to export fruits and vegetables, adding that exports of Indian mandarin have doubled in the last two years. Similar initiatives are being taken up in several other parts of the country and such efforts augur well for the agriculture sector of the country.