Centre plans to lift export ban on organic products
Ministry of commerce and industry is trying to get a policy to ensure ban is lifted
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-10-08 02:43 GMT
New Delhi: The commerce ministry is working to allow organic processed foods free from export ban.“With a view to provide an enabling policy environment, the ministry of commerce and industry is trying to get a policy to ensure that there would never be any ban on organic processed food exports even if the primary produce of that commodity is subjected to some restrictions,” said A.K. Tripathy, joint secretary, department of commerce and industries at an event organised by Assocham.
Talking about the lack of domestic standards, Mr Tripathy said, “Today, there is another challenge of an absence of a credible domestic certification system in India and that is something the ministry of agriculture or any other concerned ministry has to do”.The chairman-cum-secretary of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APE-DA) Santosh Sarangi said that one of the major challenges for India is maintaining the integrity of organic certification system.
“All stakeholders like farmers, processors, traders and the certification bodies in the organic process should be fully involved and committed to maintaining the integrity of the certification system,” he said.“There is a huge potential for the country to penetrate into the $64 billion worth global organic food market as India currently has a meagre 0.35 per cent share in the global organic food basket.