Trade, import and export for MSMEs: MSME support and development organization National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) would now be helping micro, small and medium enterprises working with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) across multiple areas. NSIC, through an MoU with APEDA, will help its MSME members in the export potential of their agricultural and processed foods products. Apart from exports, APEDA members would also get access to NSIC schemes to address issues around technology adoption, skills, product quality, and market access. The tie-up would also “support the promotion of green & sustainable manufacturing technology for the MSME clusters so as to enable units to switch to sustainable and green production processes and products,” Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
Emails to Dr Sudhanshu, Secretary, APEDA, and P Udayakumar, Director (Planning and Marketing), NSIC seeking comments for this story were sent. The two had signed the MoU on Wednesday.
APEDA and NSIC will also facilitate the participation of MSMEs in fairs of international level including B2B & B2C fairs to be organized in India and abroad. Also, the two organisations will work towards international business development and promotions. Moreover, APEDA and NSIC also agreed to facilitate assistance from government schemes towards capacity building of MSMEs for their social and environmental compliances and skilling as per international standards.
The country’s food processing market is likely to see its output reach $535 billion by 2025-26 while the sector is expected to generate 9 million jobs by 2024, according to India Brand Equity Foundation. India’s agriculture sector, which is the primary source of livelihood for about 58 per cent of India’s population, had Gross Value Added (GVA) by agriculture, forestry and fishing at around $276.37 billion in FY20. The government is likely to bring out an Agro MSME Policy to drive entrepreneurship in India’s hinterland. MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari during an online event in May last year had said that the Ministry is working on bringing out an Agro MSME Policy which will focus on entrepreneurship development in rural, tribal, agricultural, and forest areas for manufacturing products using local raw material.
