SME Times News Bureau | 19 Apr, 2018
Indian
tropical fruit exporters
are increasingly looking for exploring the untapped international
markets of the Central Asian region, especially Kazakhstan, said
APEDA Chairman D.K. Singh.
"The
region remains covered under snow for almost six months of the year.
They have (sub-tropical) pomegranate and grapes. Our embassy in
Kazakhstan has informed us that tropical fruits are in much demand
there. So we are going to promote Indian varieties of mango,
pineapple and banana," D.K. Singh said
in an interview.
"The
move will open up the markets in the surrounding countries since
Kazakhstan acts as distribution centre in the region," he
added.
Kazakhstan is a part of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS), a regional grouping of former Soviet
republics, including Russia. The other CIS countries are Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
While Mango varieties from across
the country would would be chosen for the exports, pineapples would
be preferred from Sikkim.
"We can easily
air-transport banana to (Kazakhstan capital) Almaty in just three
hours," Singh said. (Last year, APEDA managed to send 250 tonnes
of bananas from Kochi to Dubai through ships despite the low
shelf-life of the fruit.)
According to APEDA data, global
exports of fruits fell to 455,805 tonnes during April-January 2017-18
from 581,718 tonnes in the corresponding period in
2016-17.
Similarly, vegetable exports in the same period
fell to 1,882,035 tonnes from 2,871,370 tonnes in
2016-17.
Currently, the export of agricultural commodities
to Russia is at a "comfortable" scale but other CIS
countries do not import "much" from India, Singh
said.
India exported 28,755 tonnes of fruit to Russia in
2016-17 but the quantity has reduced this year as just 15,244 tonnes
could be exported during April-January 2017-18. Ukraine and Belarus
have also been importing Indian fruit, but the share has reduced this
year.
While imports by Armenia and Azerbaijan have not
been considerable this year, it has been nil for Georgia and Moldova.
There has been no fruit trade with the remaining CIS countries.
This
summer, APEDA will conduct market promotion activities for Indian
varieties of mangoes in Kazakhstan, South Korea, China and
Iran.
"Last year, we exported 60-70 tonnes of mangoes
to South Korea. This year, we expect it to be 100 tonnes. We are
going to take some exporters to these countries this year to promote
our mangoes," Singh said.
Iran had approved of the
mango treatment facilities in India last year and subsequently
imported 500 tonnes of mangoes.
Singh said the export body
was facing difficulties in selling mangoes in the Chinese market due
to tariff barriers and issues with translation.
"We
have been trying hard to export mangoes to China. But issues like
tariff barriers, and faults in translation have created obstructions.
We are trying to create bonds with them. This year we have decided to
enter the market with a token export of 10-25 tonnes," he said.