New Delhi, Sept 2 (KNN) Approximately 30 to 40 lakh tones of onion production is wasted almost each year due to non-availability of proper storage facilities as India’s onion production annually is pegged at 190 lakh tones against its estimated availability of 150-160 lakh tones to end consumers, according to Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce Santosh Sarangi.

Meanwhile, the General Manager, APEDA, Tarun Bajaj said that the Department of Commerce is working on a portal on lines of a well-established website known as Alibaba.com that is likely to provide consumer to consumer, business to consumer and business to business sale services to promote exports of agri and hori products.  The portal is being evolved by the commerce department in consultation with India Brand Equity Fund.

Strongly making a sound case for creation of chains of storage facilities for agri and horti products across the country, the Joint Secretary sought both private and public investments for such facilities without any delay to cater to domestic as well as exports requirements of agri products with full compliance with standards prescribed for domestic and export consumption.

Speaking at a National Seminar on Promotion of Agri and Horti Exports from India organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, Sarangi asked the domestic producers of agri and horti products to take extra care to adhere to the SPS agreements to respect the well-established international practices of agricultural trade.

Despite India being one of the largest producers of agri and horti products in the world, its export performance on this front has not been on par with its potential and it is because of this reason, the Indian agri and horti products sometimes face ban on export markets in economies of scale, felt Sarangi, pointing out that the farmers should follow the global practices for export production.

Speaking on the occasion, Bajaj said that Indian farmers and agriculturists should take advantages of multiple government schemes to enhance their agri and horti produce with adopting the emerging agri related technologies.

Horticulture Commissioner S K Malhotra in his observations said that Ministry of Agriculture was doing its best to evolve and put in place the cluster based policies to promote the exports of India’s agri and horti products.

Among others who participated in the Seminar were Managing Director, Mrs Bector Food Specialites Ltd Akshay Betor; Ex Chairperson, Codex Alimentarius Commission & Ex Advisor FSSAI Sanjay Dave and Chairman, Agribusiness Committee of PHD Chamber N M Kejriwal. (KNN Bureau)