• The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the ministry of commerce and industry, facilitated the export of bananas from India to Russia via sea.

• A consignment of 20 MT of bananas was flagged off from Maharashtra in a collaborative effort with the Central Institute of Sub-tropical Horticulture (CISH). 

• APEDA highlighted the development of sea protocol employed for this shipment by CISH for maintaining the quality of fruit in transit.

• Recently, Russia has shown keen interest in procurement of tropical fruits from India.

India is the largest producer of bananas in the world

• Banana is a major horticultural produce with Andhra Pradesh being the largest banana-producing state in India, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. 

• These five states collectively contributed around 67 per cent to India’s banana production in 2022-23.

• Despite being the largest global producer of bananas, India’s exports do not reflect this quantitative evaluation. 

• India’s export share in the global market is only 1 per cent, even though the country accounts for 26.45 per cent of the world's banana production (35.36 Million Metric Tonnes). 

• In 2022-23, India exported bananas worth $176 million, equivalent to 0.36 MMT. 

• Within the next five years, banana exports from India are expected to achieve the target of $1 billion. 

• This achievement will ensure an increase in farmers’ income and improve the livelihood of more than 25,000 farmers, and is estimated to generate employment for more than 50,000 aggregators directly or indirectly linked to the supply chain.  

• Major export destinations for Indian bananas include Iran, Iraq, UAE, Oman, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and Maldives. Additionally, the US, Russia, Japan, Germany, China, the Netherlands, the UK, and France present India with abundant export opportunities.

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. The Act came into effect on February 13, 1986.

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

• Its headquarters is situated in New Delhi. It has 16 regional offices across India.

• APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility of export promotion and development of following scheduled products:

i) Fruits, Vegetables and their Products

ii) Meat and Meat Products

iii) Poultry and Poultry Products

iv) Dairy Products

v) Confectionery, Biscuits and Bakery Products

vi) Honey, Jaggery and Sugar Products

vii) Cocoa and its products, chocolates of all kinds

viii) Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Beverages

ix) Cereal and Cereal Products

x) Groundnuts, Peanuts and Walnuts

xi) Pickles, Papads and Chutneys

xii) Guar Gum

xiii) Floriculture and Floriculture Products

xiv) Herbal and Medicinal Plants

xv) De –oiled rice bran

xvi) Green pepper in brine

xvii) Cashew Nuts and Its Products.

• In addition to this, APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility to monitor the import of sugar as well.

• APEDA also functions as the Secretariat to the National Accreditation Board (NAB) for the implementation of accreditation of the Certification Bodies under National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) for Organic exports.

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