Trade opportunities and way forward to upscale the export of GI and traditional bananas from India
ICAR- National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), New Delhi jointly organised a two-day consultative workshop on ‘Export of GI and traditional bananas: Present scenario, trade opportunities and way forward’ during 21-22 December, 2022 at Tiruchirappalli to upscale the export of GI and traditional bananas from India.
The Chief Guest, M Angamuthu, IAS, Chairman, APEDA, New Delhi appreciated the efforts of ICAR-NRCB, FPOs, and banana farmers’ efforts to conserve the GI and traditional bananas. He stressed the need to utilise the varietal diversity of bananas by using cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, and precision farming for extending export to more than fifty countries shortly.
The Special Guest, C Samayamoorthy, IAS, Agricultural Production Commissioner praised Tamil Nadu for cultivating diverse, traditional banana cultivars resistant to various biotic and abiotic stresses. He also assured the support of the Tamil Nadu State Government for promoting exports of bananas.
The Special Guest, Rajalakshmi Devaraj, IDAS, Addl DGFT, Chennai underlined that under the District Export Hub Program, 11 districts from Tamil Nadu were selected in which Tiruchirappalli district was identified for banana export.
V Geethalakshmi, Vice Chancellor, TNAU, Coimbatore stressed the importance of soil management by following strategies such as precision farming, micro-irrigation, and fertigation, etc.
K M Indiresh, Vice-Chancellor, UHS, Bagalkot informed that under One District One Product (ODOP) program, in Karnataka, two regions were identified for promotion of bananas particularly value added products.
V B Patel, ADG (Horticultural Science -II), ICAR, New Delhi urged to enhance the productivity and improve the quality of bananas.
While presiding the inaugural session R Selvarajan, Director, ICAR-NRCB, mentioned that value of banana exports tripled from Rs 430 crores to 1300 crores during 2018-2022 and there is a great opportunity to export GI tagged and traditional banana cultivars in view of increasing demand for those cultivars. He applauded the Sirumalai and delta region farmers of Tamil Nadu for cultivating and protecting the GI-tagged and traditional cultivars of banana.
On this occasion, six publications were released and three awards were conferred to different stakeholders in banana production system viz., Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., Jalgaon, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu Banana Growers Federation, Thottiyam and Tamil Nadu Hill Banana Growers’ Federation.
More than 300 participants attended the export workshop and an exhibition was also organised wherein more than 100 varieties and landraces of bananas were displayed.
Plenary session of the workshop was held on 22 December, 2022. M K Shanmugasundaram, IAS, Development Commissioner, MEPZ,SEZ, Chennai was the Chief Guest and D K Agarwal, Registrar General, PPV &FRA, New Delhi and Alex Paul Menon, IAS, Joint Development Commissioner, MEPZ, SEZ, Chennai were the Guests of Honour.
