Government working aggressively to facilitate and boost exports
In a major boost to production and exports of nutri-cereals like millet, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her union budget (2022-23) speech, announced assistance for post-harvest value addition and branding of millet products in the domestic as well as global markets.
16 programmes are being planned by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for promotion of Millets and Value Added Products of Millets in UAE, Indonesia, USA, Japan, UK, Germany, Australia, Republic of Korea, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
During the promotion programme, Buyer Seller Meets, Road Shows and participation in major international events will be organized to promote Millets and Value Added Products of Millets.
APEDA has been aggressively working towards facilitating shipments of millets by Indian exporters and helping them make inroads into new markets. Since organizing physical exhibitions and international trade fairs is not possible on account of the COVID-19 outbreak, APEDA has developed its own Virtual Trade Fair (VTF) application to facilitate interaction among exporters, producer organizations and international buyers.
To give impetus to the export of potential products as well as to remove the bottlenecks in the supply chain of nutria-cereals, APEDA has created Nutri Cereals Export Promotion Forum which also included millets exports. It has also organized a sensitization programme for millet start-ups to familiarize them about export opportunities.
APEDA has signed an MOU with Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) for making a strategy for promotion of millets and millet value added products. It has initiated a study on ‘Refinement of Millet Value Chain for Export Markets: Preparation of export strategy in wake of International Year of Millets, 2023’.