New Delhi, Mar 25 (KNN) In a bid to strengthen the foot-print of India’s agricultural and processed food products export to Nepal, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) organized a virtual Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) in association with Indian Embassy, Kathmandu.

The BSM was organised Tuesday where key stakeholders such as officials and trade representatives from India and Nepal came on a common platform to discuss the strategic cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sector, Commerce and Industry ministry said in a statement.

The BSM with Nepal is the seventeenth in the series of such virtual meets organized by APEDA in the last few months. The focus of BSMs has been to engage with all potential countries for providing a platform to connect exporters and importers in the agriculture and allied sectors.

Officials from APEDA, Indian Embassy, Kathmandu, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal and Nepal Chamber of Commerce and other stakeholders participated in the virtual meet. Exporters from India and importers of Nepal had interactions with each other during BSM.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shift of focus towards India and neighbouring trade partners creating new opportunities for alliance between various countries. Since the two countries enjoy a long-term association, India continued to ensure the food and nutrition supplies to Nepal during the COVID-19 difficult times.

In 2019-20, India’s- total merchandise trade with Nepal stood at 7.87 billion dollars. APEDA products export to Nepal was worth 670.6 million dollars (volume of shipment 1,896,915 Metric Tonne).

India’s principal exports items during 2019-20 included Non-Basmati Rice, Cereal Preparations, Miscellaneous Preparations, Maize and Groundnuts etc. During the same period, India’s agricultural imports from Nepal were processed items, cereal products, processed fruits & juices, alcoholic beverages and processed vegetables etc.