The Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has brought all its registered farmers under the Good Agricultural (GAP) Practice regime so that their produce matches the quality standards for exporting into the European and the US markets.
Ranjit Kumar Mondal, regional officer in-charge of Mumbai Apeda, said that although the bulk of India’s fruit production is exported to Bangladesh, India is trying to get a better access into the US and EU markets for higher export revenues.
Indian mangoes, which account for 40% of the country’s total fruit exports, have started becoming popular in the US, with exports doubling to 300 tonne in 2007-08. This growth was spurred by the inclusion of farmers under GAP.
GAP was launched on August 21, 2007, in conjunction with the Nitrates Directive of the UK, which aims to control pollution of water caused by the use of nitrate fertilisers.
According to Apeda officials, although exporting mangoes to South East Asia and Britain does not call for much regulation, for the US market the fruit has to be irradiated to ensure there are no germs.
At present this process can be done only in Mumbai and Nasik.
The state’s food processing & horticulture minister, Mohanta Chatterjee, said farmers should adopt the most modern technology to improve quality of their products.
The state is setting up a gamma irradiation facility in Jadavpur so that more farmers can be linked with the process of export.