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Vishwanath Kulkarni

BANGALORE, Jan. 23

IN a bid to boost agricultural and processed foods exports during the Tenth Plan, the Agricultural and Processed Foods Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) is formulating a product-specific strategy.

It had identified eight different products including basmati, mango, grapes, litchi and meat, which had major export potential, said Mr Anil Swarup, Chairman, Apeda.

``We are looking at doubling the export turnover from the present threshold of Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore by the end of 10th Plan. In this context, we are working out specific product-related strategies,'' Mr Swarup said.

The agri-export zones (AEZ) would back each product strategy, he added. The Union Government has recently sanctioned about 10 AEZs in various States, entailing an investment of Rs 200 crore. These export zones have the potential to contribute nearly Rs 1,700 crore to the exports turnover over the next five years.

According to Mr Swarup, the exports of agricultural and processed food products are expected to register a marginal growth of 1-2 per cent during the current financial year, despite the current slowdown.

``We are marginally ahead of last year's figure. Last year, exports were up by more than 20 per cent at Rs 9,212 crore.

Despite the September 11 attacks and the slowdown, our position is satisfactory and we are looking at an export target of 9,500-10,000 crore for the current year,'' he said.

Products, which have seen improvement during the year are egg products and processed vegetables.

``We see some good signals emerging in these categories,'' Mr Swarup said adding that exports of basmati rice and meat products had suffered to some extent.

``In case of basmati, we may find it difficult to sustain the whopping growth achieved last year as Saudi Arabia, a major importer, is not buying this fiscal as it did last year. Saudi Arabia imports depending upon the stocks and probably for this year they have already stocked up,'' Mr Swarup said.

Exports of meat products had suffered in the first four months of the current year on ban on meat and meat products by Jordan and Egypt.

``After the lifting up of ban, we are doing fairly well and we believe that in the next quarter we should be able to make up for the losses,'' he said. ``Last year, meat product exports registered a growth of 80 per cent at Rs 1,637 crore. If we are able to sustain that, it will be a good achievement,'' he added.

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