Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, on Wednesday said that the government is committed to promote agricultural exports.

To promote the agricultural exports, the Government has introduced a comprehensive Agriculture Export Policy with the vision, “Harness export potential of Indian agriculture, through suitable policy instruments, to make India a global power in agriculture, and raise farmers’ income”, said Goyal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The Government has also brought out a new Central Sector Scheme – ‘Transport and Marketing Assistance for Specified Agriculture Products’ - for providing assistance for the international component of freight, to mitigate the freight disadvantage for the export of agriculture products, and marketing of agricultural products, the reply added.

The Department of Commerce also has several schemes to promote exports, including exports of agricultural products, viz. Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Market Access Initiatives (MAI) Scheme, Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) etc.

In addition, assistance to the exporters of agricultural products is also available under the Export Promotion Schemes of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Tobacco Board, Tea Board, Coffee Board, Rubber Board and Spices Board, the minister said.