• Exports of agricultural and processed food products rose by 14.7 per cent to $11.65 billion during the April-October period on the back of healthy growth in commodities including rice, and fresh fruits and vegetables.

• The initiatives taken by APEDA, which functions under the ministry of commerce, has helped the country achieve this milestone at a time when most of the business activities suffered a huge setback due to the restrictions imposed after the outbreak of second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• According to the Quick Estimates released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), the export of rice has increased to $5.28 billion during the first seven months of this fiscal year as against $4.77 billion in April-October 2020.

• Exports of fresh fruits and vegetables rose to $1.53 billion during the April-October period of 2021-22 as compared to $1.37 billion in April-October 2020-21.

• India reported a significant 85.4 per cent jump in export of other cereals while the export of meat, dairy & poultry products witnessed an increase 15.6 per cent in the first seven months of the current fiscal (2021-22).

• The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products is because of APEDA’s various initiatives taken for the export promotion of agricultural and processed food products such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product specific and general marketing campaigns by active involvement of Indian embassies.

What is APEDA?

• The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) was established by the government under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act passed by Parliament in December 1985.

• APEDA, which replaced the Processed Food Export Promotion Council (PFEPC), has its headquarters in New Delhi.

• In order to reach out to exporters in different parts of the country, APEDA has set up five regional offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Guwahati and 13 virtual offices in Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneshwar, Srinagar, Chandigarh, Imphal, Agartala, Kohima, Chennai, Raipur,  Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Lucknow and Panaji.

APEDA is mandated with the responsibility of export promotion and development of the following scheduled products:

• Fruits, vegetables and their products

• Meat and meat products

• Poultry and poultry products

• Dairy products

• Confectionery, biscuits and bakery products

• Honey, jaggery and sugar products

• Cocoa and its products, chocolates of all kinds

• Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages

• Cereal and cereal products

• Groundnuts, peanuts and walnuts

• Pickles, papads and chutneys

• Guar gum

• Floriculture and floriculture products

• Herbal and medicinal plants

• Basmati rice.

Functions of APEDA:

• Development of industries relating to the scheduled products for export by way of providing financial assistance or otherwise for undertaking surveys and feasibility studies, participation in enquiry capital through joint ventures and other reliefs and subsidy schemes.

• Registration of persons as exporters of the scheduled products on payment of such fees as may be prescribed.

• Fixing of standards and specifications for the scheduled products for the purpose of exports.

• Carrying out inspection of meat and meat products in slaughterhouses, processing plants, storage premises, conveyances or other places where such products are kept or handled for the purpose of ensuring the quality of such products.

• Improving packaging of the scheduled products.

• Improving marketing of the scheduled products outside India.

• Promotion of export oriented production and development of the scheduled products.

• Collection of statistics from the owners of factories or establishments engaged in the production, processing, packaging, marketing or export of the scheduled products or from such other persons as may be prescribed on any matter relating to the scheduled products and publication of the statistics so collected or of any portions thereof or extracts there from.

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