India now exports fruits and vegetables to 123 countries

Thanks to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority’s (APEDA) support schemes, India’s exports of fruits and vegetables have increased by 47.3 per cent in volume and 41.5 per cent in value terms over the last five years, beginning FY20.

India also expanded the reach of its exports of fruits and vegetables to cover 123 countries. Fresh fruits and vegetables from India entered 17 new markets, including Brazil, Georgia, Papua New Guinea, Czech Republic, Uganda, Ghana etc, in the last three years. 

This market penetration has been achieved through a host of measures such as participation in international trade fairs, market access negotiations and buyer seller meets. The Department of Commerce through APEDA supports exporters with schemes for infrastructure development, quality improvement, and market development.

For the 15th Finance Commission cycle (FY21 to FY26) APEDA has made provision for financial assistance to member exporters for infrastructure development schemes such as setting up of packaging houses, pre-cooling units with cold storage and refrigerated transportation etc, cable system for handling of crops like banana, pre-shipment treatment facilities such as irradiation, vapour heat treatment, hot water dip treatment and common infrastructure facilities, reefer vans and for improving existing infrastructure.

Financial assistance is also provided for purchase of laboratory testing equipment, installation of quality management system, handheld devices for capturing farm level coordinates for traceability and testing of water, soil, residues and pesticides etc.

Market promotion schemes include assistance for participation in international trade fairs, organising buyer seller meets and developing packaging standards for new products and upgrading the existing standards.

The export figures are based on data compiled by the central agencies on the basis of the State-of-Origin code reported by the exporters in the shipping bills. These are not validated by DGCI&S. 

Major producing states include Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Karnataka.

Over the3 last three years, India has achieved new market access for potatoes and onions in Serbia, baby corn and fresh banana in Canada and pomegranate arils in Australia, USA, Serbia and New Zealand. 

APEDA is addressing market access issue by bridging barriers such as long geographic distance, delay in grant of market access by importing countries, phyto-sanitary requirements, delay in registration of enterprises, etc through intensifying market access negotiations, development of sea protocols for horticulture products to reduce logistic costs, follow-up with authorities of importing countries and setting up traceability system for meeting stringent phyto-sanitary requirements.