Draft agri-export policy : Key Features

A draft Agri Export Policy has been released by the Commerce Ministry. The National Agriculture Export Policy is being formulated in line with the vision to double the farmer’s income and increase the share of agricultural exports from $30 billion to $60 billion by 2022.

The features of the policy include

• Identification of commodities which are essential from food security perspective through consultation among ministries and stakeholders. Barring those the effort would be to ensure that no other produce is brought under any kind of export restrictions.
• Putting an end to any kind of export restriction including minimum export price (MEP) and export duty on commodities not categorised as essential in order to build a more stable trade policy regime.
• Export restrictions could be ended straight away on processed agricultural products and all kinds of organic products, and a policy assurance given that these would not be brought under the ambit of any kind of export restriction such as MEP, export duty, export ban, etc even though the primary agricultural product or non-organic agricultural product is brought under some kind of export restrictions.
• To develop a common portal to monitor all export rejections and provide a platform to different nodal agencies to take up a root cause analysis, take corrective action and if required, respond to the partner country regarding action taken.
• Creation of an institutional mechanism under the aegis of Department of Commerce with representation of relevant Ministries and Agencies to address India’s market access request.
• Using the DGFT field offices, Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards and Industry Associations to act as advocacy forum to bring about reforms in APMC Act and streamlining of Mandi fee.
• Development of export-centric clusters, promoting value added exports through incentives, special focus on value added exports of organic products, developing uniform packaging for organic products, marketing and promotion of ‘produce in India’ through Geographical Indication (GI) registration and putting in place post-harvest infrastructure support for smooth logistical movement of agri produce.
• It has identified 50 district-wise clusters for developing export-oriented infrastructure. [THBL]