Rejections in Indian exports

What is the issue?

Indian agriculture produce faces more rejections in key export markets compared to products from other developing countries.

What is the status of India’s export market?

• India is among the top 10 WTO members in exports of agriculture commodities.
• The country has a surplus in food product exports, its key export markets include the US, the EU, ASEAN, SAARC countries and West Asia.
• There is a strong commitment from the Government to promote exports of fresh and processed food products, and a strong willingness on part of the exporters and farmers to export.

What are the constrains in India’s food export?

• A majority of seizures for India were raised in the years 2012 and 2013, and these pertained to eggplant, mangoes, snake gourd, bitter gourd and taro (arabi).
• Recently products such as mangoes, table grapes, okra, peanuts, curry leaves, chillies, and tamarind are getting rejected.
• Marine products such as shrimps, prawns, have also faced rejections.
• Due to issues such as presence of higher than approved levels of chemical residues, and pest and bacterial infestation these agricultural products are getting rejected.
• In spite of being a large producer of milk, India is not able to export milk products and ready-to-eat ethnic milk sweets.
• This is due to unhygienic animal rearingconditions and increased chemical feeds.
• The Government don’t have a traceability system for milk and processing conditions par international norms.

What are the impacts of such rejections?

• In the short run, such rejections and bans can led to financial losses.
• In the long run, exporters and farmers can lose market share to exporters from other countries.
• In a globalised world, export control reduces the country’s ranking in ease of doing business.
• There are also severe consequences of these notifications such as destruction of consignment.

What measures needs to be taken?

• Indian export control and export promotion bodies must implement traceability, laboratory testing and other measures to avoid such rejections.

• India needs to implement Good Agriculture Practices and minimise the use of harmful chemicals to meet food safety and health standards.
• India also needs to focus on nutritious diet for its own consumers it will ensure food safety and health standards in the domestic trade.
• India should move away from export control to a more scientific system focusing on food safety and health.
• Such as system can be implemented by FSSAI working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare.

Source: Business Line