Government is planning to set up a quality control mechanism in order to prevent rejections from the importing countries and to ensure that the food products exported by India. The upcoming initiative would check on the certification requirement of the importing country. A K Gupta, advisor, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), said, “The Ministry of Commerce has asked to keep a check on exports of processed products.”
“The government is constructive to initiate a study and to come up with solutions in the form of regulations where the exports to the countries where a certification is required can be stopped at the pre-shipment stage which will save from a possible rejection on foreign soil,” he added.
“There are more food products like squashes, ketchups, fruit juices, fruit pulp and pickles, which will also be under check once such a regulation is ready. This will bring down the number of rejections in the category of fruits, vegetables and processed foods,” he said.
P Vijayaraghavan, chief executive officer, Lawrencedale Agro Processing India (P) Ltd, and an exporter of exotic vegetables, said, “We are regular exporters to the Gulf nations. Some of the nations in the European Union (EU) demand for certifications of hygiene and quality like phytosanitary certificates.”
“APEDA has already made exports aware in this regard in the year 2012 when it issued the types of certifications required,” he added.
The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a think tank has been working to identify sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) barriers faced by the Indian exporters in the EU markets with respect to agriculture and processed produce focusing on selected products like mangoes, grapes, basmati rice, peanut and peanut products, mushroom, green peas, beans, dairy products and eggplant.
Dr Arpita Mukherjee, professor, ICRIER, informed, “These certifications would help ensure the quality of the products which are exported. This will also help encourage exporters to follow good manufacturing practices (GMP) and good hygiene practices (GHP) in their manufacturing units.”
“The importing countries which require certifications will be checked by the government. This will avoid rejection at the consignment destination,” she added. Mukherjee stated that such developments and initiatives to educate exporters were necessary and also it was commendable that the government has taken a decision to come up with such needed upgrades.