To Promote Food Processing & Organic Agri Exports in North-East States
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed by Central Food Technological Research Institute, CSIR−CFTRI, Mysuru with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to set up a Liaison Office in Guwahati, Assam to provide technical support to the food industries in the North East region. It will benefit the farmers, producers and entrepreneurs.
APEDA has undertaken many promotional activities recently to bring the North East states of India on to the export map. In 2019 five international buyer seller meets were organised by APEDA in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to showcase the potential of agriculture/ horticulture and processed food products including organic produce to open the export window from the North Eastern States.
Capacity building is another such area where APEDA is keenly focusing to hand-hold the new exporters from the North East region. Recently, APEDA organised an exposure visitto Maharashtra, considered as one of the major export hubs, to acquaint the exporters and state officials from Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland on export oriented farming, pack house and modern food processing units.
APEDA has also organised specific outreach programmes and training on export process for the stakeholders from the North East region. North East region has tremendous potential in converting large areas into organic certification for which training on the requirements of the National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP) have been imparted to the North East states to create awareness on the vast potential of organic agriculture and exports.
North Eastern Region has immense opportunities for food processing and other agri-business that can contribute to the economic upliftmentof the region andcreate facilities for startups. It is expected that the liaison office of CSIR-CFTRI will strengthen the food processing sector in the North East and will have multiplying effect on the export of traditional and processed food products from the region.