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Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, while addressing the launch of the '8th edition of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP)' organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) on Thursday, stated that the current export of organic produce stands at around Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 crore and is expected to grow to Rs 20,000 crore in the next three years.
"India has the potential to triple exports of organic produce to Rs 20,000 crore in the next three years as more and more farmers enter organic farming", said Piyush Goyal at the event. "The Indian farmers must slowly migrate to organic farming and increase both domestic production and capture the international market", he added. Goyal further highlighted that the Ministry of Cooperation, the Agriculture Ministry, along the Ministry of Commerce and Industry are jointly working to advance organic farming by supporting the farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) via skill development, training, export facilitation, marketing, and packaging. "The global demand for organic products is around Rs 1 lakh crore and with increased promotion and production, this demand may reach Rs 10 lakh crore. India has the largest number of organic farmers globally and ranks second in terms of area under organic cultivation. With some additional efforts, I am confident that we can become the global leader in organic farming significantly enhancing farmers' income and promoting Indian organic produce to the international market", Goyal noted. The Minister also unveiled a dedicated NPOP Portal which will provide more visibility and ease of operations for organic stakeholders. He also launched TraceNet 2.0, the upgraded traceability platform of NPOP, to streamline operations and enhance tools for regulatory oversight. During the event, the first five registration certificates generated on TraceNet 2.0 were distributed by the Minister to organic operators. Additionally, the redesigned APEDA portal was also showcased with enhanced user experience and useful information for the benefit of agri and processed food stakeholders. The newly redesigned Agri Exchange portal was also launched, which would provide a more user-friendly platform for data analysis and the generation of reports on agricultural exports, accessible to the general public. Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry; Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Cooperation; Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State for Cooperation; Dr Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation; Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce & Chairman, National Accreditation Body (NAB) under NPOP were also present during the event. (ANI)
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