Centre will work as a one-stop-shop for the exporters in the agricultural sector.
The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), in association with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), launched India’s first and unique Agriculture Export Facilitation Centre on 15th May 2021 in Pune. This Facilitation Centre will work as a one-stop-shop for the exporters in the agricultural sector. There are also plans to set up a digital presence for the centre as well as sub-branches in the region to ensure greater access.
The centre, which will bring in expertise from current agro-exporters, serving and retired state and union government officials, will help exporters on all aspects of the ‘farm-to-fork’ chain of agro-exports. The process includes export registration, market assessment, standards of recipient countries, and adjustments required to match those standards, the kind of logistics involved in the operation, among other issues.
The Centre would guide the prospective exporters on various relevant aspects through experts in areas like pesticide residue management, global gap certification, preference of potential importing countries their product choice, quality parameters, the preconditions, orchard management for export-oriented production, harvesting time and methods, quality parameters, production technology, greenhouse production, post-harvest management, packaging, the procedure to be followed at the airport, seaport and unloading at importing countries.
The Centre also proposes to develop a knowledge bank where activities and knowledge related to different aspects of exports would be available at the click of a button. It would provide information about APEDA’s schemes for exporters, the procedure to get APEDA support and information on Govt. of India and State Government Schemes for export promotion.
“The facility will be available to anyone in the agricultural sector, who plans to export their products overseas. As per the last figures recorded, India’s share of agricultural exports in the world was very low. There is a need to improve that, and, despite Maharashtra’s share in agricultural exports from India being disproportionately high, we have set up this centre to increase agricultural exports,” said Prashant Girbane, director-general, MCCIA.
