Treasured
transactions
KS
Money, Chairman, Apeda, shares his views with Binny Sabharwal on the
crucial strategies that Indian exporters need to adopt in response to
the Bioterrorism Act
What
are the largely exported processed food products from India and which
products have seen the highest growth in the past one-year?
The
major products exported in the last one year include processed livestock
products, other processed food and processed fruits and vegetables.
The other processed foods include jams, pickles, chutneys, and fruit
juices and pulp.
Processed
seafood is also an area that has witnessed growth, but I am not the
authority to speak on marine products, as they do not fall under the
mandate of Apeda (Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development
Authority). It is evident that there has been a substantial increase
in exports in this sector too, though I do not have the figures. Overall,
the export of all products that come under the mandate of Apeda have
recorded a turnover of Rs 138.28 billion, which is a 35 per cent growth
rate.
What
are the emerging markets that Indian exporters are targeting as oppose
to traditional destinations?
The traditional markets for Indian processed food exports include the
Middle East and South Asian countries. The emerging countries that Indian
exporters are targeting and should look at in the near future are countries
like Russia, Estonia, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Kuwait, Yemen, Jordan
and Malaysia.
India’s
share in the global trade in valueadded dairy products is minimal despite
being a major producer of milk. What are your views on this and how
is Apeda looking at promoting exports from this sector?
I
do agree that in spite of increasing exports in certain segments, India
has not really made a mark in the global dairy trade. But it’s not as
if adequate attention has not been paid to the export of value-added
milk products from the country. One should also take into consideration
the domestic consumption, which has been increasing at a very high rate.
The
milk market in India itself is a huge market. There has also been a
shortage of milk and its value-added products, in metropolitan cities
like Mumbai when the demand rises during the festive period. Recently,
in September 2003, there was a milk crisis and to meet the demand, milk
powder had to be imported.
Further, it was also not easy to enter most of the traditional milk
buying markets. There were certain other reasons too that kept us from
making inroads into potential markets like the US and EU, the primary
reason being the huge subsidies that are offered in these countries.
The increasing number of tariff barriers also add to the problems of
the industry. But still I think we have reached a stage where we may
witness substantial increase in our exports from this sector in the
coming year.
The
prospects of processed meat export have brightened with Saudi Arabia
resuming the import of mutton and countries like Egypt, Russia and Iraq
expected to follow suit. What are the targets set by the organisation
in these markets?
We
must confess that we cannot set quantitative targets, as such. But we
are very hopeful that we may improve our performance in this sector.
Saudi Arabia has certainly resumed import of value-added sheep and goat
meat since August last year and that has come as a big boost for the
meat exporters.
Why
were Indian meat products banned from Saudi Arabia in the first place?
Saudi
Arabia had some problem about the standards of hygiene that were being
followed in the Indian abattoirs. We certainly do try to impose some
qualitative checks but when there is a sudden increase in demand like
during the festive seasons, fly-by-night operators and short time traders
get into the act and then they (both exporters and importers) take the
products from anywhere without taking into account the quality factor.
So this is what causes a problem. Suddenly, the importing country finds
that .....
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