Fresh Indian lychees will hit the US market next year after the two countries agreed upon quarantine treatment procedures.
Up until now, India has only been able to export processed lychees to the US. The new access comes after fresh mangoes were permitted to enter the US in 2007, reported the Business Standard.
“We are gearing up for export of lychees to US for the first time,” said said Asit Tripathy, chairman of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
“The procedures for treating the fruits have been mutually agreed. Farmers in Bihar, which is the country’s largest lychee producer, will be the main beneficiaries.”
APEDA will now make a formal application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and permission is expected by the end of the year.
“We will use sulphur dioxide as a post harvest fumigant and this will prevent blackening of skin and improves shelf life,” Ranjan Kedia of India’s largest lychee exporter Radha Krishna Impex Ltd told the Standard.
India produces 250,000 tonnes of lychees a year, 80 per cent of which is in Bihar. The country exports 1.300 tonnes a year, mainly to Europe and Asia, worth about Rs50m (US$1m).
