The Hindu Business Line : Project for organic market development launched

THE Indian Organic Market Development Project (IOMDP), undertaken by the Bangalore-based International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture (ICCOA) for the development of organic market in the country, was launched here on Thursday.

The project will have financial support from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), Switzerland, and get technical collaboration from the Swiss research institute, FiBL. One of the partners of IOMDP is the Kerala-based Indian Organic Farmers Producer Company Ltd (IOFOCL), which is claimed to be the first Indian producer company dealing with only organic agricultural commodities.

Launching the project, Mr Hans-Peter Egler, Head, Trade and Environmental Technology Co-operation, SECO, Switzerland, said: "We are convinced that this project will, with the strong support of all stakeholders in organic agriculture, make a substantial contribution to the development of the organic agricultural sector in India."

In recent years, the global market for organic products had grown at very high rates, especially for products from tropical countries. In India, organic production has considerably grown in the last two years, too, he said. ``In 2002, we started to support organic agriculture in India with a project for the establishment of an independent certification agency in India - Indocert." An assessment, he said, carried out by Indian and Swiss experts in 2003 showed that lack of access to domestic and foreign markets was the main bottleneck for growth in the organic farming sector. Consequently, SECO has decided to support a project that assists Indian organic farmers in accessing markets abroad and at the same time, to enable a domestic organic market to emerge.

As part of the project, ICCOA was established in Bangalore last year, which will implement the various elements of the project with the support of FiBL and other consultants, he said. The Union Department of Economic Affairs has recently approved the project, he added.

An agreement of IOMDP was also signed by Mr Hans-Peter Egler on behalf of SECO and Er Ramesh L. Harve, President, ICCOA.

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