Horticultural exports need more sensitivity

EU had imposed a ban on fruit and vegetables after 207 Indian consignments were contaminated by pests.

The recent news over lifting the ban on export of mangoes from India to the European Union (EU) was welcomed by various stakeholders in India. The EU accounts for about half of the overall fruit and vegetable exports from India.

Within the EU, the United Kingdom accounts for the most export, followed by Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. India, of its annual production of 1.5-1.6 million tonnes of mangoes, sells 65,000-70,000 tonnes in the global market. In 2013-14, it exported mangoes worth $50.7 million. For the first six months of year 2014-15, mango exports stood at $43.9 million.

EU imposed a ban on mangoes (Mangifera sp) along with vegetables like bitter gourd (Momordica sp), snake gourd (Trichosanthes sp), egg plant (Solanum melongena) and taro (Colocasia sp). This ban came into place after 207 Indian consignments of fruit and vegetables were found to contaminated by pests like fruit flies and tobacco white flies in the infested shipments.

Neither is harmful to humans, but both could pose a serious threat to tomato and salad crops in Europe, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Because of the ban, mango exports to the EU fell from $8.9 million in 2013-14 to $1.1 million in 2014-15 (April-September) – about an eight times drop.

It is a legitimate function of national governments to prevent the import of goods that threaten human, animal and plant health. Hence, each nation can impose certain minimum conditions/ standards to which imports should match.

However, imposition of standards at national borders can impede international trade because it may result either in the banning of imports or reduced profitability of exporting as a cost of compliance.

In this context, to ensure free and fair trade, under the WTO regime, a separate agreement on the ‘Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures’ (the SPS Agreement), was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations.

The food code

‘Codex Alimentarius’ (“a food code” in Latin) was adopted as the basis for SPS. The Codex Alimentarius was set up jointly in the 1960s by two organisations of the United Nations – the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) – with an objective of guiding and promoting the elaboration and establishment of definitions and requirements for foods, to assist in their harmonisation and, in doing so, to facilitate international trade.

One of commonly known parameters of Codex standards is residues of unwanted or harmful agrochemicals used in various stages of production such as Maximum Residue Levels (MRL) of pesticides.

The other one is the presence of unwanted microbes, as was the case with Indian mangoes. However, SPS provides the flexibility to importing nations to amend the Codex standards and adopt their nation specific set of standards, which could be far more stringent than that of Codex

India’s diverse climate ensures availability of all varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables. It ranks second in production in the world, after China. During 2012-13, the area under cultivation of fruit stood at 6.98 million hectares while vegetables were cultivated at 9.21 million hectares, producing 81.285 million metric tonnes of fruits and 162.19 million metric tonnes of vegetables according to National Horticulture Database published by the National Horticulture Board.

During 2013-14, India exported fruit and vegetables worth Rs 8760.96 crore which comprised fruit worth Rs 3298.03 crore and vegetables worth Rs 5462.93 crore. Mangoes, walnuts, grapes, bananas and pomegranates dominate fruit exports while onions, okra, bitter gourd, green chilles, mushrooms and potatoes contribute to the vegetable export basket.

The major destinations for Indian fruit and vegetables are UAE, Bangladesh, Malaysia, UK, Netherlands, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Fruit exports from Karnataka have touched Rs 488 crore during 2013-14. The state exported 238 tonnes of fruit including mango, grape, sapota, pineapple, banana and pomegranate among others.

Though India’s share in the global market is still nearly 1 per cent only, there is increasing acceptance of horticulture produce from the country. This better performance was due to concurrent developments in the areas of state-of-the-art cold chain infrastructure and quality assurance measures. Apart from large investment pumped in by the private sector, the public sector has also taken initiatives.

With assistance of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce, several Centers for Perishable Cargoes and integrated post harvest handling facilities have been set up in the country. Capacity building initiatives at the levels of farmers, processors and exporters have also contributed towards higher exports.

Dominating presence of Merchant-Exporters (which procures from producers and re-exports same) in export sectors is one weak link that makes Indian exports prone to such bans. Merchant-Exporter comes into the supply chain at very late stages with no or very little influence over the quality of produce.

Investment in measures to increase awareness at farmer’s groups about the requirements of international market, encouraging them to enter into the export sector are bound to pay dividends in years to come.