SME Times News Bureau | 11 Dec, 2018
The new agriculture export policy will hardly benefit farmers unless
agricultural bodies like APEDA and DPPQS become proactive in their operations, according
to exporters.
"I do not think that the new agriculture export policy will be of much
help to farmers unless organisations such as APEDA and DPPQS take adequate
measures to be proactive in their operations and play an honest role in
promoting exports, which unfortunately has not been the case so far," West
Bengal Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (FFV) Exporters Welfare Association's Joint
Secretary Ankush Saha said on Monday.
He added that even two years after lifting of ban certain plants and vegetables
from India by the European Commission, export of some vegetables to the
European Union (EU) has not still been possible.
"DPPQS is not ready to issue the Phyto-Sanitary Certificate and is even
showing unwillingness to inspect the product. APEDA has also not taken adequate
steps to facilitate the export of these vegetables," he said.
According to him, nearly 3,000 kg of vegetables including different varieties
of spinach, gourd and brinjal were exported from West Bengal to Europe, Dubai,
Abu Dhabi and others, every day before the ban was issued in 2014.
This has now down to near zero, even though the ban has been revoked, he said.
The state also used to export Rs 50-60 crore worth of betel leaves to EU.
However, following the issuance of non-compliance by EU against a consignment
due to microbiological contamination and APEDA suspending the exporter, exports
of betel leaves to the EU from Kolkata has become stagnant since September 2017
since exporters fear suspension.
"I feel the APEDA should do a root cause analysis and deploy two or
microbiologists to find out the main cause behind the contamination," he
added.