HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, July 6: The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) along with the department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, govt of Meghalaya organized a one-day Bharat Agri Conclave cum International Buyer-Seller Meet in Shillong, Meghalaya on July 6.
The primary objective of the event was to promote the agri-horti products in the North East Region (NER), especially those from Meghalaya. The event was inaugurated by Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, minister for agriculture and farmers welfare department, government of Meghalaya along with Vijay Kumar D, IAS, commissioner and secretary, agriculture and farmers’ welfare department, govt of Meghalaya and Abhishek Dev, IAS, Chairman APEDA.
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Several senior officials from APEDA, other central as well as state govt officials graced the event that emanated a beneficial outcome in forging the bonds between buyers and sellers.
Minister, Dr M, Ampareen Lyngdoh in her address to the Bharat agri conclave expressed her appreciation to APEDA for its initiatives in promoting Meghalaya’s agriculture quoting, “it gives us a great sense of hope.” She emphasized on the tremendous potential of the state in offering and contributing agricultural produce to domestic and global market.
Vijay Kumar D, commissioner and secretary, agriculture and farmers welfare, govt of Meghalaya shared the initial success story of first export shipment of Khasi Mandarin (GI) and Pineapple to the Middle East. He outlined the vision of the state government to scale up such more initiatives of exports of local products to international markets to increase farmers income.
Abhishek Dev, chairman APEDA in his address emphasised on the export potential of agriculture products from Meghalaya. He also outlined various initiatives to augment organic exports from the state and also initiative in easing the organic certification process and further added that APEDA is expediting the accreditation of more certification bodies, especially from the northeast, in the interest of the local organic farmers.
The exclusive Buyer Seller Meet in Meghalaya provided an opportunity for producers and processors of Meghalaya to showcase their products to global and domestic buyers. Buyers from 12 countries viz., Uganda, Ghana, Indonesia, Greece, Kuwait, Oman, Vietnam, Nepal, Bangladesh, Singapore, Kenya, and the United Arab Emirates actively participated and interacted with the exporters in the Bharat Agri Conclave cum International Buyer-Seller Meet in Shillong, Meghalaya.
Over 41 exporters across the country and 106 FPO/FPCs, Corporative Societies and other producer groups from the state participated. The event has seen a display of a wide range of agricultural products, including organic fresh fruits and vegetables, processed food products, spices such as Lakadong turmeric, natural honey, aromatic rice, pulses, and others. This event aims to link the producers and processors of Meghalaya with buyers from India and abroad. This initiative is expected to broaden the base of the export basket of NER, thereby increasing farmers’ income and accelerating the overall growth in the region.
To underline its focus on the NER, APEDA in this financial year will be organizing more such events in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).
