India’s bid to increase its share of the global organics market is set to get a boost from a new traceability system that will launch in January next year.
The system is being built by the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), a body under the central Ministry of Commerce and Industry, reported the Indian Express.
“It is next to impossible to physically monitor all farmers in the country. Hence, the need for a system-based approach was felt,” said APEDA’s director S Dave.
“With the traceability system, which will actually be a massive online database containing real time information on production and export, we expect to make our system a lot more credible.”
Mr Dave said complaints about organic certifying bodies in India spurred on the new system. APEDA found some farmland certified as organic had never actually been visited by the certifying bodies.
“With this system in place, farmers will not only put their farming details and practices online, the certifying body too will need to put in the latitude and longitude of the farmland, which will be verifiable on Google Earth.”
The new system is intended to mirror the success of a similar traceability system set up for Indian grapes in 2006/06, which saw prices shoot up by a third and exports increase five times.
“We will be introducing this system for around 400,000 organic farmers, and will closely monitor not only the farmers and exporters, but also the certifying bodies,” Mr Dave stated.
The traceability system will log farmers’ names, locations, practices, farm size and production mechanism, as well as tracking exporters and traders. It will be showcased at Biofach 2010 in Germany, the world’s largest organics trade fair.
“Globally, the market for organic food is US$40bn, of which India’s share is a mere US$123m,” Mr Dave told the Express.
“The traceability mechanism will get farmers a better deal and build trust in European markets, where 70 per cent of our products are exported.”
