Cabinet Approves Agriculture Export Policy, 2018

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Agriculture Export Policy, 2018. The Cabinet has also approved the proposal for establishment of Monitoring Framework at Centre with Commerce as the nodal Department with representation from various line Ministries/Departments and Agencies and representatives of concerned State Governments, to oversee the implementation of Agriculture Export Policy.

The Government has come out with a policy to double farmers’ income by 2022. Exports of agricultural products would play a pivotal role in achieving this goal. In order to provide an impetus to agricultural exports, the Government has come out with a comprehensive “Agriculture Export Policy” aimed at doubling the agricultural exports and integrating Indian farmers and agricultural products with the global value chains. The Agriculture Export Policy has the following vision:

“Harness export potential of Indian agriculture, through suitable policy instruments, to make India global power in agriculture and raise farmers’ income.”

Objectives:

Objectives of the Agriculture Export Policy are as under:

· To double agricultural exports from present ~US$ 30+ Billion to ~US$ 60+ Billion by 2022 and reach US$ 100 Billion in the next few years thereafter, with a stable trade policy regime.

· To diversify our export basket, destinations and boost high value and value added agricultural exports including focus on perishables.

· To promote novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports.

· To provide an institutional mechanism for pursuing market access, tackling barriers and deal with sanitary and phyto-sanitary issues.

· To strive to double India’s share in world agri exports by integrating with global value chain at the earliest.

· Enable farmers to get benefit of export opportunities in overseas market.

Elements of Agriculture Export Policy:

The recommendations in the Agriculture Export Policy have been organised in two categories – Strategic and Operational – as detailed below:

Strategic	Policy measures
	Infrastructure and logistics support
	Holistic approach to boost exports
	Greater involvement of State Governments in agri exports
	Focus on Clusters
	Promoting value-added exports
	Marketing and promotion of “Brand India
Operational	Attract private investments into production and processing
	Establishment of strong quality regimen
	Research & Development
	Miscellaneous

The Union Cabinet on Thursday, 6 December cleared a new agriculture export policy, which aims to double agri exports from the country by 2022 by boosting infrastructure and removing export restrictions currently exist on a variety of commodities.

Announcing the decision, Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said the government has decided to remove export restrictions on most organic and processed agricultural products, barring commodities other than those identified as essential from the food security perspective such as onions. The idea is to give an assurance that organic or processed agriculture products will not be under any export restrictions such as export duty, export bans and quota restrictions.

He said that it was for the first time that India has gone for such a policy and it is line with the government’s promise to doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Better branding would be undertaken under the policy to promote exports.

The agri-related exports from the country this year is expected to be worth around $37 billion, which was $7 billion more than that in last the fiscal. “Considering that there was 20 per cent growth in exports has taken place this year, achieving $60 billion by 2022 would be possible. This would be further taken to $100 billion in the next few years thereafter, with a stable trade policy regime,” Prabhu said.

Monitoring framework

The Cabinet has also approved the proposal for establishment of monitoring framework at Centre with Ministry of Commerce as the nodal department with representation from various line Ministries/Departments and Agencies and representatives of concerned State Governments, to oversee the implementation of agriculture export policy.

According to the Ministry, total outlay for the implementation of the policy would ₹1,400 crore, which exists already under different schemes. Besides, the Centre would work closely with the State governments to help them make good use of the policy.

The policy seeks to diversify the country export basket and destinations, by boosting high value and value- added agricultural exports, including focus on perishables. Currently, rice, meat and marine products account for more than 50 per cent of Indian agri exports.

Institutional mechanism

To achieve this, the government plans to provide an institutional mechanism that would pursue market access, tackle barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues that come up from time to time.

The emphasis would also be given to promote the export of novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional agri products, the Minister said. .

Besides, putting in place adequate policy mechanism, it would seek to provide infrastructure and logistics support to exporters. The States would be urged their Agricultural Produce Market Committee acts and remove mandi taxes applicable on export-oriented goods. On the infrastructure front, the government would identify ports that are handling agri exports.

Stress would be given to follow cluster-based models and efforts would be made to attract private investments into production and processing.