New Delhi: Amid a temporary import ban on mangoes, a team of experts from European Union will visit India in September to check the measures put in place by the country with regard to fruits and vegetables.
"In the light of concerted efforts on India's part, Food and Veterinary office of European Commission has agreed to send an audit team in September to verify improvement in plant health controls and certification system with regard to fruits and vegetables," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The EU has prohibited import from India of five fruits and vegetables, which include mangoes, on account of interceptions of export consignments not compliant with EU phytosanitary (relating to plant life) regulations.
India has taken several measures, including enhancement of capacity and numbers of inspecting staff and improvement in infrastructure, implementation of a standard operating procedure to guarantee safe exports and routing of all export consignments of perishables to EU through approved pack houses from April 1 to enable better inspection and certification.
"India has not only informed the EU regarding implementation of these control systems but have also formally conveyed our disagreement on the temporary restriction imposed by the EU," she said.
In 2013-14, India has exported mangoes worth Rs 5,022 lakh (3,933 tonnes) as against Rs 3,559 lakh in 2012-13 (3,890 tonnes). Replying to another question on onion exports, she informed that India has exported onions worth Rs 3,197 crore in 2013-14. In 2012-13, the outbound shipments were valued at Rs 1,970 crore.
The five top export destinations for the commodity in 2013-14 are - Bangladesh (Rs 896 crore), Malaysia (Rs 639 crore), UAE (Rs 330 crore), Sri Lanka (Rs 392 crore) and Indonesia (Rs 258 crore). On the other hand, India imported onion worth Rs 33 crore in 2013-14. India imported highest from Afghanistan (Rs 26 crore) followed by China (Rs 5 crore) and Egypt (Rs 1 crore).
The information assumes significance on the back high onion prices and government hiking minimum export price for the commodity. "Normally, export of onion as a percentage of production has remained in the range of 7 per cent to 11 per cent only. The domestic prices are determined by variety of factors," the Minister said.
The various factors included overall production in all the three production seasons, domestic consumption, APMC taxes, Commission agents' fees, export orders, availability of surplus, domestic and international demand and supply situation. "Efficiency of supply chain from farm to the market also impacts the prices," she added.
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