Peter Van Ouwerkerk of Netherlands has been coming to India frequently for the last five years for sourcing his favourite mangoes, grapes and pomegranate. Not only does he prefer Alfonso, Baiganpally and Kesar over Latin American mangoes, which dominate the European market, but he is also trying hard to increase India?s exports of these fruits to Europe.
Peter heads a Netherlands-based company ? Total Fruit, which specialises in sourcing fresh and processed fruits from countries across the globe for European consumers. He is unhappy that despite his constant interaction with Indian farmers, cold storage chains and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), he faces bottlenecks in sourcing his favourite fruits.
?There is no systematic linkages in India between the farmers, procuring agencies and exporters,? Ouwerkerk told FE. However, he is optimistic that through bringing in efficiency in the system, things could improve. ?India?s fruit exports to Europe can be drastically increased through a little innovation through proper farm techniques and ensuring efficiency in the supply chain,? he said.
Total Fruit is one of the biggest sourcing agents for fresh and processed fruit for the European market. Usually, all the mangoes produced in India has 20 days shelf life. However, for reaching out to the European market, the mangoes should at least have 40 days shelf life, Ouwerkerk said.
According to Food and Agriculture Organisation, although India is the second largest producer of fruits at 46 million tonne, the domestic fruit industry is fraught with the massive problems of wastage caused by the woefully inadequate post harvest facilities and supportive infrastructure including cold chain.
Besides, mangoes, consumers in Europe also prefer grapes and pomegranate from India. According to Apeda, India last year exported around 2500 containers (each container has carry 15 tonne) of grapes and 500 containers of pomegranate to Europe.
Fragmented land holding and large number of small exporters also possesses hindrance in expanding India?s fruit export basket. ?European norms on pesticide residue in fruits ensure that each consignment from each farmer is tested separately,? S Dave, director, Apeda said.
This adds to the cost of exports. European food labs charge around 200 euro for testing each consignment. ?We are working out a strategy with our European counter parts so that testing by Indian labs would be sufficient for exports of fruits,? Dave said.