Following budget announcements, India’s government has indicated potential to more than triple the country’s agricultural exports.
The Hindu reported that Finance Minster Arun Jaitley said agriculture commodities such as fruits, vegetables, tea and coffee have the potential to reach US$100 billion.
Currently, the country’s agricultural exports sit at around US$30 billlion, accounting for around 10% of the country’s total exports.
The Commerce Ministry is working on policy to promote exports and cover any logistical issues. They are also currently working on identifying countries who have an import demand for agricultural goods.
As a part of the plan, Jaitley proposed the opening of 42 mega food parks; a network of collection and processing centres intended to create a link from farm to consumer market.
The food park scheme has been run over a number of years, but not all parks are currently operational. In October 2016, the intention was to have all 42 parks operational within the following two years – still in line with Jaitley’s recently proposed plans.
