SME Times News Bureau | 11 Mar, 2021
In a first of its kind initiative for boosting
export potential of India’s agricultural and processed food products during
COVID19 pandemic, APEDA launched its first Virtual Trade Fair (VTF) yesterday
on 10th March 2021.
The fair will conclude on March 12, 2021.
The fair with a theme ‘India Rice and Agro
Commodity’, will focus on showcasing the exports potential of various agricultural
commodities. Importers as well as exporters will be key participants of the
VTF.
The potential buyers
or importers and visitors will get to explore a wide range of food products
presented by the exporters through this virtual fair.
The key products
which would be displayed through VTF include – basmati rice, non-basmati rice,
millets, wheat, maize, groundnut and coarse grains.
So far 135 Exhibitors
have registered for the VTF. Further 266 Indian and international buyers from
United Arab Emirates, Brazil, New Zealand, France, Saudi Arabia, United
Kingdom, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Fiji, Philippines, Qatar, Sudan, Myanmar,
Netherlands, and Peru have registered at the starting of the events.
The buyers have been
generated with the support of Indian Embassies abroad. An aggressive campaign
of Virtual Trade Fair is running on Social media.
Because of COVID19
related restrictions on physical travel and trade, APEDA has initiated the
concept of VTF for sustaining India’s agricultural and processed food products
exports and also exploring new markets for expanding export footprints.
In the pre-COVID19
era, trade fairs and exhibitions have been instrumental in promoting export of
agricultural foods by APEDA. In the VTF, the trade facilitation would take
place using interactive technology.
Through VTF, the
exporters and importer meetings can be held with no interruption via audio as
well as video sessions. The fair provides the facility workshops, product
launches, live streams and webinars. The virtual meet will have facilities for
private meeting rooms, personalized meeting provisions.
The
online interactions between exporters and importers and data exchanged during
such interaction will be secured and can be accessed only by parties concerned.
Such virtual events
also provide cost effective and productive platforms where the buyers and
sellers could negotiate or discuss trade face to face giving a feel of real
time exhibitions or fairs.
APEDA has been
pioneer in taking IT initiatives in the past in terms of making its process
system online, Implementation of traceability and adoption of advanced
technology.