Agricultural Export Policy

The Agricultural Export Policy was introduced to increase and provide support to productivity, pre and postharvest management, value-addition, and upgrade technology. The Policy was introduced after the stagnant agricultural trade in the international market from 2013-2017. The decline of agricultural commodities reduced GDP and other economic affairs. To make significant reforms to the export policy for agriculture, India restructured from the Green Revolution Era and promoted Agricultural Export Policy to diversify the food and non-food agriculture base to emerge as a leading player in the world in agricultural trade. The Policy would increase agricultural exports leading to stable growth in GDP, benefits for farmers, employment in rural areas, quality and scope for value addition, and future market potential. The Agricultural Export Policy shall address the following areas to increase the exports in agriculture:

Changes in the food patterns
Increasing unstable incomes
Shrinking farming area
Changing socio-economic, agro-climatic, and dietary patterns
Transportation and Infrastructure
Postharvest losses
Generating employment
Minimizing the failure in the value chain

The vision of the Policy

To utilize the potential of Indian Agriculture and emerge as a global power in agriculture through a suitable framework and policies.

Objectives of the Policy

The Policy has a twin objective to increase the Agriculture export

To create a stable trade policy regime
To double the agricultural exports to 100 Billion USD by 2022
Diversify the export base and increase the high-value and value-added agricultural exports
Promote ethnic, traditional, organic, and non-traditional Agri products
Create a platform to provide a mechanism for better market access to deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues
To increase India's share in the world agri exports by integrating with the international value chain
Create a framework to support farmers to increase benefits and opportunities in the overseas market

Policy Framework

The Agricultural Export Policy recommendations are in two categories, they are:

S. No.	Category	Features
1	Strategic	Policy Measures
		Support for Infrastructure and Logistics
		Holistic Approach to Increase Exports
		Involvement of State Governments in Agriculture Exports
2	Operational	Focus on Clusters
		Promoting Value-Added Exports
		Promoting and Marketing 'Brand India'
		Establishing a Strong Quality System
		Attract Private Investments into Production and Processing
		Research and Development
		Miscellaneous

Strategic Recommendations

Policy Measures

The Department of Commerce (DoC) shall hold regular discussions with the public and private stakeholders to increase agricultural exports through the agricultural value chain. The DoC shall highlight the measures to be initiated to gain better access to the international market and the need to increase the quality of commodities to create a stable and trusted market chain. The DoC will focus on creating policies to attain short-term goals to reduce inflation, domestic price, and production volatility of certain agricultural products. The measures for the reduction can be implemented by maintaining price stability or imposing a Minimum Support Price (MEP) and redirecting resources toward products that provide higher returns. The Policy aims at:

Assuring that the processed agricultural products shall not be brought under the export restrictions (MEP, export duty, export bans, export quota,
capping and export permit)
Any situation related to extreme pricing or restrictions shall be discussed with the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Liberalization in the import of agricultural products for value addition and re-export
Reform the Policy by using the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards, and Industry Associations

Infrastructure and Logistics

The Agricultural Export Policy promotes the creation of a robust infrastructure for developing a solid agricultural value chain to boost agricultural exports. The infrastructure involves the following facilities to increase exports:

Pre and postharvest handling facilities
Storage and distribution facilities
Processing facilities
Roads exit point infrastructure at ports to promote smoother trade
Mega Food Parks
State-of-the-art testing laboratories and
Integrated Cold Chains

Involvement of State Governments in Agri Exports

To increase the export and quality of the production, all the states can make reformation as per the priorities required by the socio-economic, political realities, and agricultural nuances. The involvement by the states will extend the support to identify the issue faced by the exporters, organize buyer-seller meet, encourage state-level exporters to participate in international fairs, and identify the schemes provided by the State and Central governments to maximize the exports. The Agricultural Export Policy shall also collaborate with State Export policies to include inland and marine fisheries, promoting good agricultural practices, quality assurance systems, pre and postharvest infrastructure planning, and food processing industries.

Operational Recommendations

Focus on Clusters

The importance of establishing clusters was emphasized to boost agricultural and horticultural production in India. The Agricultural Export Policy will focus on the cluster development approach to improve pre and postharvest management and upgrade the supply chain to increase production, reach higher export levels, and double the farmer's incomes. Through the Policy, the central government shall support the State government by providing incentives to increase infrastructure to:

Identify suitable production clusters.
Conduct farmer registrations
Digitization of land records
Promote Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO)

To provide successful implementation of clusters, the Policy shall promote Agri Export Zones (AEZ) to enhance value addition and higher exports. Since India has developed Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to create goods at lower prices in Public and Private sectors in specific sectors like IT, Textiles, and Pharmaceutical sectors, developing AEZ can provide opportunities to produce value-added products for certain countries. This can be regulated by the WTO and thus increasing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Agriculture Exports.

Promoting Value-Added Exports

The Policy is focused on promoting value-added, indigenous, and tribal products, as the export have little or no processing or value-added products. Research on exportable products with branding shall be implemented to increase the value-added products. The stakeholders shall give the following commodities financial support to increase the level of exports:

Non-forest produce
Wild herbs
Medicinal plants
Extracts
Lac and
Essential oils
Cashew, cashew apple jams and pastes, flavored cashew

Promoting and Marketing Value-Added Organic Exports

Under the National Programme on Organic Production (NPOP), livestock, aquaculture, and organic textile that has the potential for exports are added to boost the value-added organic exports. The agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) shall implement the need to increase export production, product registration, and support for buying shelves in the organic sector. APEDA shall act as a nodal organization for NPOP to implement and enhance organic export products.

Private Investments in Export-Oriented Activities and Infrastructure

Export volumes and the quality of the product can be increased by postharvest infrastructure. The postharvest infrastructure will enable better price realization and creates a smooth logistical movement of agricultural products. The benefits of postharvest infrastructure are:

Better quality compliance
Facilitates smooth logistic handling
Expansion to distant markets
Cold storage
Exit Point Infrastructure

Ease of Doing Business

The Policy shall support smooth business operations by digitalizing farmer records, geo-mapping lands, registering farmers and farm producer organizations, registering land records, and linking the land details with Aadhaar. This will help to eradicate the misuse of public funds, establish traceability and promote farmers' presence in the global market. A dedicated portal such as the 'Agri exchange portal' and `fish exchange portal' shall be operated by the DoC to enhance market leads in the international market through the Indian Embassy. Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MICOR) will be developed to enquire about or create requirements for all the major agricultural products to avoid rejection. The DoC has proposed to create a single portal to provide a facility for single accreditation of labs and prevent different organizations from carrying out accreditation activities separately. It shall also address the issues relating to export market access. Get expert help from IndiaFilings to register for a Private Limited Company, Public Limited Company or One Person Company!