By Dr Kaushik Banerjee, Director, ICAR-National Research Centre for Grapes, Pune
Grape is an important commercial fruit crop, which is mostly grown in the peninsular region of India. Maharashtra is the leading grape-growing state, with the major production loci being Nashik, Sangli, Solapur and Pune districts. Karnataka and Mizoram also have a good acreage of grapes. The supply chains of fresh grapes and raisins (its dried product) involve multiple stakeholders, and hence, are influenced by diverse factors affecting the financial viability of the process.
However, for export facilitation to the European Union, the Grapenet of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has established an end-to-end food-safety-traceability system in the country and as per the farm registration records of the Government of Maharashtra, the registered farm area under Grapenet is still ~45 per cent. For the products from these registered farms, it is possible to track all the details of grape consignments, right down to the location of the vineyards, where each one-hectare area is given a unique registration code. The network system maintains the records of all quality control/quality assurance (QA/QC) processes that are coordinated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-NRC (National Research Centre) for Grapes (NRCG) and the Department of Agriculture/Horticulture of the concerned state governments. The system includes traceable services of ISO17025 accredited laboratories, which carry out the sampling and residue testing as per the harmonised protocols implemented by NRCG. The entire system is meticulously managed, to ensure that every consignment passing through Grapenet for export is 100 per cent MRL (maximum residue level)-compliant.
It is often a challenge to register the smaller grape growers for such traceability systems, but farmers have been resolving the problem by organising themselves into groups based on the concepts of cooperative farming or farmer producer organisations. One of the main hurdles to maintaining the quality of the produce is the emergence of contaminants. For example, in 2023, the internal monitoring data revealed that residues of a veterinary insecticide were detected in certain grape samples. This was observed mostly in spurious, unregistered products that claimed the insecticides were nutritional supplements used to aid vine growth. The use of such dubious agrochemical formulations pose a major challenge to the grape industry. Their use often results in MRL non-compliances, pest resistance and resurgence, adversely impacting the economic returns of the stakeholders.
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