Producing fruits and vegetables at minimal cost, India is one of the world's major agricultural economies. The agricultural sector of India's economy is the country's backbone. Horticulture refers to the cultivation of plants for human use, including but not limited to fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The Latin terms hortus (garden) and cultura (cultivation) are the origins of the English word 'horticulture.' It describes the practice of growing plants in a contained space, such as a garden. Every step of the horticulture process—from planting to crop management to harvesting to packing to storage to marketing and processing—requires meticulous attention to detail. Horticulture crops account for over 28 per cent of India's GDP, and India is the world's second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables after China (GDP). Much of the agricultural output is exported, and it also serves as a critical input for the food processing and distribution sectors.

 

The salience of the horticulture sector

India's horticulture industry has a lot of potential, and the way we grow and sell fruits is changing, which is a step in the right direction toward the next generation. By adding human intelligence and technology to farms, the country is catching up with high-value markets that were once an afterthought, mostly because farmers stuck to the old ways of farming. Things are shaking up, and they are changing rapidly. Indian fruit orchards and farms are now attracting overseas and corporate investments and modernising production methods, resulting in opening up newer markets for premium agricultural produce and boosting exports as well.

 

The scope and significance

Horticultural plant cultivation plays a significant role in the Indian economy by giving jobs and raw materials to food processing companies, as well as by increasing production, hence increasing profitability and export revenues from foreign currency. In the previous several decades, this field's contribution to the gross domestic product has increased its significance (GDP). It has emerged as a leading source for boosting income, alleviating poverty, and creating jobs. Some 24 million hectare, or more than 7 per cent of all agricultural land, is allocated to horticulture. India ranks second in the cultivation of vegetables such as potatoes, cauliflower and brinjal and is the leading producer of okra. In terms of the cultivation of fruits such as mango, banana, guava, lemon, and papaya, India ranks first. In India, the cultivation of fruits and vegetables has surpassed that of cereal grains.

India is hopeful that rupee trade with Russia will pick up in the future after the two sides recently spoke about facilitating trade in local currencies, an Indian trade ministry official said on Monday.

 

India has been exploring a rupee trade settlement mechanism with Russia since soon after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February but the countries have not formalised the rules yet.

 

New Delhi has become Moscow's largest oil buyer after China, buying discounted Russian crude well below a $60 price cap agreed by Western nations while also trying to close a growing trade deficit with the country.

 

India is looking to enhance exports of electronic items to Russia, Satya Srinivas, a secretary at the trade ministry, told reporters in New Delhi.

 

The two countries are engaging 'at all levels' to resolve issues related to trade barriers and a payments mechanism, Srinivas said.

 

Russia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Bangladesh are some of the countries that are keen on rupee trade with India, he added.

Algeria's state grains agency OAIC has issued an international tender to buy soft milling wheat to be sourced from optional origins, European traders said on Sunday.

 

The tender sought a nominal 50,000 tonnes but Algeria often buys considerably more in its tenders than the nominal volume sought.

 

The deadline for submission of price offers in the tender is Tuesday, Jan 17, with offers having to remain valid until Wednesday, Jan. 18.

 

The wheat is sought for shipment in two periods from the main supply regions including Europe: March 1-15 and March 15-31. If sourced from South America or Australia, shipment is one month earlier.

 

Algeria is a vital customer for wheat from the European Union, especially France.

The Indian Food Safety Authority, FSSAI, has decided to further extend the deadline for its order on requirement of ‘health certificate’ with imported food consignments. The date for implementation of the order is now set for March 1, 2023.

 

The previous extension was until January 1, 2023.

 

The food authority had issued an order in August 2022 and the subsequent clarification in September on the subject, wherein the FSSAI ordered that from November 1, 2022, the imported consignment of milk & milk products, pork & pork products and fish & fish products were required to accompany by a health certificate issued by a competent authority of the exporting country.

 

The food authority had also prescribed the format of the health certificate to  accompany such imported food categories wherein attestations were required regarding sanitary and food safety related conditions and a general condition that the source animal shall not be fed with feed containing meat or bone meal including internal organs, blood meal and issues of bovine or porcine origin material except milk and milk products and has/have not been manufactured using animal rennet.

 

Also, in September, FSSAI issued a clarification that an integrated/single certificate incorporating food safety related requirement/attestations is also accepted by FSSAI at the time of import clearance and it may be ensured that integrated certificates shall incorporate all the information as per format notified by the FSSAI in August 2022 order.

 

Meanwhile, the FSSAI has stated that the decision to extend the implementation by two months until March 1 was taken after considering the request from the WTO members wherein it was conveyed to the Indian Food Authority that many trade partners were in process of adopting the requirement.

 

Earlier, comments were sought from the WTO members on the subject and after considering the comments received from the trading partners in respect of implementation time, it was decided that the date of implementation of the order shall be extended by two months until January 1, 2023.

The ongoing negotiations of India for the proposed comprehensive free trade agreements with the UK and European Union (EU) are on track and the next round of talks with both the regions will happen soon, a top government official said on Monday. India has recently concluded the sixth round of talks with the UK and third round with the EU.

 

'The seventh round with the UK and the fourth round with the EU will be held very soon. Both the trade agreements are on track,' the official said.

 

The official added that both the agreements are comprehensive in nature and includes goods, services, investments, labour, environment and sustainability.

 

All these issues require a lot of unanimity among the negotiating countries and these talks are complex exercises.

 

'Last time when the UK negotiating team was here, we had a a good understanding. Now there is a much better understanding. Both the teams are negotiating at a convenient speed and pace and a lot of issues are being settled between the two teams,' the official said.

 

Negotiations with the UK started on January 13 last year.

 

The bilateral trade between the two countries increased to USD 17.5 billion in 2021-22 compared to USD 13.2 billion in 2020-21. India's exports stood at USD 10.5 billion in 2021-22, while imports were USD 7 billion.

 

After a gap of over eight years, India and the EU formally resumed negotiations on the proposed agreement on June 17, 2022.

 

India's bilateral trade with the European Union rose by 43.5 per cent to USD 116.36 billion in 2021-22.

 

When asked about India's demand for resumption of exports benefits by the US under Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the official said India would welcome if it would be resumed by America.

 

'We had requested the US during the meeting of trade policy forum...The US has to take the call. It would help enhance competitiveness of our exporters,' the official added.

 

The GSP is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by allowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.

 

Under the programme, nearly 2,000 products including auto components and textile materials can enter the US duty-free if the beneficiary developing countries meet the eligibility criteria established by Congress.

 

In 2019, the US withdrew these benefits.

 

When asked about the issue of Iran stopping imports of tea and rice from India, another senior official said that it was a temporary measure.

 

'I believe that some rice exports have started,' the official said.

 

On the issue of under-invoicing of Chinese imports in India, the department of commerce has flagged the matter with its finance counterpart.

 

'We have received feedback that the finance ministry is taking actions. On some consignments from China, risk profiling to identify those consignments which are under invoicing. Some seizures are happening. We are waiting for some feedback from the finance ministry,' the official said.

 

On India-Russia trade, the official said India has taken up issues of domestic exporters with regard to market access and standards with Russia.

 

'We will be pushing exports of electronic items in Russia. India is also pushing rupee trade with Russia,' the official added.

 

Countries including Russia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are keen to have rupee trade with India.

Iran has lifted restrictions it recently imposed on rice imports, according to the director general of the Commerce Bureau of the Agriculture Ministry.

 

'There is currently no ban on placing order [for rice imports],' Shahyad Aabnar was quoted as saying by Iran Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, adding that order has been placed for the import of 100,000 tons of rice in the past 24 hours.

 

His comments came after the head of Rice Importers Association of Iran announced that rice imports have been banned since early November and no kind of rice can go through customs clearance.

 

'Responsible officials have cited ‘balancing out bilateral trade’ as the reason why they have banned rice imports from the countries we normally purchase the grain from,' Karim Akhavan-Akbari was quoted as saying by the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.   

 

It was earlier announced that only Indian rice imports were banned.

 

Akbari said the government decision would cause shortage in the domestic market, since local production cannot meet domestic demand for rice.

 

'So far this year, close to 1.27 million tons of rice have been imported. Our annual import demand stands at around 1.5 million tons. Therefore, we need to purchase nearly 250,000 tons of the grain by the end of the year [late March],' he said.

 

He noted that year-on-year inflation for top quality Iranian rice stands at 123.1%, adding that for high-quality foreign rice the rate stood at 45.9% in the month ending Dec. 21.

 

'The first six deciles of the country consume imported foreign rice, due to their more reasonable prices. The ban set on imports can result not only in a shortage of rice, but an increase in prices. In our country, rice is a staple food, coming in second after wheat in the list of the most consumed grains. Therefore, this measure can impact a large number of the population, particularly the ones with more modest means,' he said.    

 

His remarks came after Salar Saket, the deputy head of Rice Importers Association of Iran, echoed similar concerns.

 

'Indian rice accounts for the highest proportion of imported rice due to its high quality and reasonable price. Iranians prefer Indian rice over other foreign types of rice and importers trade commodities for which there is demand in the market. The rice we purchase from India meets the needs of six underprivileged income deciles and also balances the price of Iranian rice. So, it is only obvious how this ban on imports can damage the market,' he said.

 

The ban also applied to import of tea from India.

 

'It will be lifted as soon as bilateral trade is balanced out or registers surplus,' secretary of Iran’s Rice Suppliers Commission, Masih Keshavarz, was quoted as saying earlier.

 

A total of 1.75 million tons of rice were imported into Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2021-22). The import volume set a ten-year record high, according to the secretary of Iran Rice Association.

 

'Last year’s imports was more than twice the volume the country needed to make for the domestic production deficiency,' Jamil Alizadeh Shayeq was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

 

A total of 2.25 million tons of rice were produced in Iran during the last Iranian year (March 2021-22), according to the deputy head of Iran Rice Union, Ahmad Eshraqi.

 

Rice consumption in Iran currently stands at 3 million tons per year, about 70% of which are supplied through domestic production, according to Alireza Mohajer, a deputy agriculture minister.

 

India has long been a major exporter of rice to Iran. Other exporters include Pakistan, the UAE, Thailand, Turkey and Iraq.

 

The three northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan produce are Iran’s rice production hubs.

 

Contract-Based Production

Contract-based cultivation of rice was launched in Iran in April 2022 for the first time.

 

More than 6,322 hectares of paddy fields have joined the scheme so far, the CEO of the Central Organization for Rural Cooperatives affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture said back then.

 

'We estimate that a total of 15,805 tons of rice will be produced under the scheme which is being carried out in the northern provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan. Up until now, we have distributed over 1,100 tons of seeds among farmers taking part in the plan,' Esmaeil Qaderifar was also quoted as saying by ILNA.

 

Agricultural Production Insurance Fund, he added, has made sure all of these contracts are insured.

 

'Seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are provided for farmers as part of the contract-based production scheme. The government plans to expand the scheme to all strategic agricultural products,' he said.  

 

FAO Forecast

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations expects Iran’s rice production to reach 3 million tons in 2022, down from 3.1 million tons last year. Five-year average output has been put at 3.5cereal million tons.

 

In its biannual report on global food markets, FAO said Iran imported an average of 1.3 million tons of rice during the 2018-20 period.

 

The 2018-20 average production has been put at 2.5 million tons.

 

Consumption is forecast to slightly increase from 3.6 million tons in 2021 to 3.7 million tons in 2022.

 

Average utilization during crop years 2018-19 to 2020-21 stood at 3.6 million tons.

 

2022-23, 2021-22, and 2018-19 to 2020-21 average closing stocks have been put at 0.6, 0.5 and 0.7 million tons respectively.

 

The 2018-19 to 2020-21 average per capita has been put at 38.2 kilograms.

 

Limited availabilities of water for irrigation cloud rice production outlook for Iran, the report noted.

 

'International trade in rice is predicted to register its third successive annual increase in 2022 (January–December), with volumes exchanged across the world forecast to reach 53.1 million tons, up 3.0 percent from the 2021 all-time high. With the exception of the Asian Far East, most regions are anticipated to step up their imports over the course of the year, often aided by state efforts to contain inflationary pressure. Such steps have taken the form of import duty remissions in various African and Latin American countries, or of an acceleration of government-contracted imports, as has been most notably the case of Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran.'

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today said that the Government today thinks like a startup, relentlessly focusing on newer and better ideas and striving to saturate them throughout the country to improve efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, transparency and integrity of systems and processes. He was addressing the gathering after distributing the National Startup Awards 2022 in New Delhi today. The Minister congratulated all the winners and expressed hope that the Award would inspire them further expand their horizons.

 

Applauding the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi as being both a generator and incubator of brilliant innovations to address the challenges that we as a nation face, Shri Goyal said that under his visionary leadership, the idea of startup India had taken root throughout the length and breadth of the nation. 

 

The Minister observed that many more innovative ideas and initiatives must be nurtured to ensure that the nation grew at a much faster pace than ever before in the Amritkaal and to meet the aspirations of a young India. He said that the initiatives taken by the government under the leadership of the Prime Minister in the last few years, were timely and had been successful in building the foundation for a powerful, resurgent India, a nation recognized as an emerging growth story, set to drive global growth.

 

Shri Goyal noted that the Prime Minister placed great focus on speed, skill and scale in the execution of projects. Citing the example of Digital India Mission launched in 2015, he said that early on, the Prime Minister had recognized that unless Digital India was taken to the remotest corners of the country, the vision of equitable development wouldn’t become a reality. Initiatives like Digital India, 4G and now 5G rollout, broadband connectivity in villages drove the growth of this highly technology dependant startup ecosystem, especially in small towns and in remote parts of the nation, he opined.

 

The Minister said that the government came up with highly impactful innovations like COWIN app, One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC), PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, UPI which has powered so many startups and unicorns, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) which will democratise e-Commerce and save millions of mom and pop stores across the country and JAM Trinity that ensured that the truly deserving received assistance from the government directly, ushering in honesty, integrity and transparency in entire system.

 

The Minister appreciated the ‘MAARG’ portal and said that it would help focus, refine and fine-tune ideas. He referred to the investor connect portal and said that it would help innovators from remote parts get access to crucial opportunities and give many deserving startups access to the funding ecosystem. Technology can be an enabler to leapfrog into the new age where the fruits of development can be taken to every last citizen, helping them achieve a better quality of life, he said.

 

Referring to the MAARG portal, the Minister said that the focus of the government is to simplify the interaction of citizens with the government. In line with this approach of the Government, PM had removed the need to notarise documents, placing trust in the common man and this has never been misused, he noted. He urged startups to give suggestions to improve processes to make it simple, economic.  He also mentioned that over 39000 compliances have been reduced, he asked for suggestions on what more can be decriminalized to reduce compliance burden.

 

The Minister emphasized on the need for a more robust database on startups to connect them in a better manner with the government, industry bodies and the general public and to capture more ideas of our innovators. Shri Goyal concluded by reiterating that this is a government that listens and wants to engage more with everyone to build the future of India.  

 

Shri Som Prakash, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, spoke about how government has been providing handholding and support to the startups of the country, in terms of funding, mentorship and much more. Mr Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Jury, National Startup Awards, congratulated the contribution of Startup India, DPIIT and highlighted the pivotal role of the government in promoting startups. 

 

A ‘National Startup Awards 2022 Report’ was also released on the occasion today. The report provides detailed insight into the support provided to previous National Startup Awards recognized startups and the National Startup Awards 2022 winners. The MAARG platform which stands for Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth was also launched during the felicitation ceremony today. This platform is envisioned to facilitate mentorship between startups and entrepreneurs across sectors, stages, and functions. There are over 600 mentors and over 800 startups registered on the platform currently. The portal will now allow for live matchmaking of mentors with startups, helping startups to access the guidance that will help them grow and increase their impact in India and globally.

 

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had conceived the National Startup Awards to recognize and reward outstanding Startups. The National Startup Awards recognize exceptional startups across various categories that provide innovative solutions which lead to large-scale employment and sustainable economic development. The first edition of the National Startup Awards was concluded in October 2020. 36 startups, 1 incubator, and 1 accelerator were recognized as winners in their respective categories.

 

The third edition of the National Startup Awards was launched on 1st February 2022. In line with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, National Startup Awards 2022 acknowledges startups and enablers who have been instrumental in revolutionizing the development story of India and in demonstrating exceptional capabilities not just in terms of financial gains but also for the measurable impact on society.

 

National Startup Awards 2022 focused extensively on diversity, inclusion, and innovation. The sectors and sub-sectors covered under the National Startup Awards 2022 have been increased to 17 and 50 respectively from the previous editions, thereby increasing the coverage of the startup ecosystem. 2 sectors, 5 sub-sectors, and 2 special categories have been added to this edition. Manufacturing Excellence and Startups from North-East and Hilly States and Union Territories are the two new special categories added to further encourage startups.

 

A total of 2,667 applications were received from startups, incubators, and accelerators from 31 states and union territories across the country. These applications were screened and evaluated by more than 50 jury members. These jury members include senior Government officials, Venture Capitalists (VCs), startup CEOs, Industry stalwarts, and renowned educationists, among others.

 

In this third edition, 41 startups, 2 incubators, and 1 accelerator were recognized as winners in their respective categories. Winners have emerged from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, indicating the spread of the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation across the last mile in the country.

 

The winning startups (per category) will be awarded Rs. 5 lakh each, and the winning incubator and accelerator will be awarded Rs. 15 lakhs respectively. The results for National Startup Awards 2022 can be found on the Startup India website. (https://www.startupindia.gov.in/nsa2022results/).

 

National Startup Awards is a long continuous journey. The call for applications for National Startup Awards 2023 will be live soon. For details, https://www.startupindia.gov.in/ may be seen.

A representative from GASC confirmed the corn would be used for feed, but said it wasn't yet clear how the grain would be distributed within Egypt. The country usually imports more than 1 million mt/month of corn, but took just 924,000 mt in the last three months of 2022. Egypt imported 3.63 million mt in the same period a year earlier. This shortage has resulted in a shrinkage of the poultry stock and fears of rising prices.

 

Egypt's private players have struggled to take delivery of corn since September 2022 because it became hard for them to pay when the government tightened restrictions on foreign exchange.

 

'There are no dollars coming in,' said Emad Hanna, the owner of Prime Grains Group, which trades wheat, corn and sunflower meal. 'Suppliers are selling volumes to Egypt and not getting any money.'

 

The decline is largely because Egyptian importers were unable to get their banks to provide letters of credit for dollar payments.

India’s overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) in April-December 2022 is estimated to exhibit a positive growth of 16.11 per cent over the same period last year (April-December 2021). As India’s domestic demand has remained steady amidst the global slump, overall imports in April-December 2022 is estimated to exhibit a growth of 25.55 per cent over the same period last year.

 

India’s overall export (Merchandise and Services combined) of USD 61.82 Billion in December 2022. The exports exhibited a negative growth of (-) 5.26 per cent over the same period last year. Overall import in December 2022* is estimated to be USD 73.80 Billion, exhibiting a negative growth of (-) 1.95 per cent over the same period last year.

 

Table 1: Trade during December 2022*

		December 2022 (USD Billion)	December 2021 (USD Billion)
Merchandise	Exports	34.48	39.27
	Imports	58.24	60.33
Services*	Exports	27.34	25.98
	Imports	15.56	14.94
Overall Trade (Merchandise +Services) *	Exports	61.82	65.25
	Imports	73.80	75.27
	Trade Balance	-11.98	-10.02

* Note: The latest data for services sector released by RBI is for November 2022. The data for December 2022 is an estimation, which will be revised based on RBI’s subsequent release. (ii) Data for April-December2021 and April-September 2022 has been revised on pro-rata basis using quarterly balance of payments data.

Fig 1: Overall Trade during December 2022*

• India’s overall exports (Merchandise and Services combined) in April-December 2022* are estimated to be USD 568.57 Billion. Overall imports in April-December 2022* are estimated to be USD 686.70 Billion

 

 

Table 2: Trade during April-December 2022*

		April-December 2022 (USD Billion)	April-December 2021 (USD Billion)
Merchandise	Exports	332.76	305.04
	Imports	551.70	441.50
Services*	Source:  pib.gov.in
	16 Jan, 2023 20 FPOs leave for Mumbai to learn nuances of agri export. A group of 20 Farmer Producers Organisations left for Mumbai by a bus on Sunday to meet the farm and agricultural products exporters to know the methods and mechanism needed for export.   Organised by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the tour was flagged-off by divisional commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma at a function held at circuit house. Commissioner expressed the hope that the FPOs going to meet exporters of farm and agriculture products in Nasik, Mumbai and other places in Maharashtra will train other farmers and FPOs of east UP region.   APEDA assistant general manager CB Singh said that the efforts of the past three years to develop Varanasi and surrounding region of east UP as a hub of farm and agriculture products has resulted in export of three lakh metric ton of such products. 'On an average 3-4 metric ton agricultural products including vegetables and fruits are being exported from Varanasi airport per day,' he said adding that among 100 FPOs registered in UP, 50 are from the east UP region.   Since 2019, APEDA has ensured bringing exporters to this region to make the FPOs aware about their requirements, he said. For the first time FPOs from east UP are being sent to places like Nasik and Mumbai, the hub of agriculture and horticulture products exporters to learn the nitty gritty of export, said Singh. Apart from Varanasi, the FPOs from Sonbhadra, Chandauli, Bhadohi, Ghazipur, Ballia, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Kaimur (Bihar) had gone to Mumbai, he added.    Source:  timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Back to First Prev … 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 … Next Go to Last