The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Study of offshore markets for farm products planned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Study of offshore markets for farm products planned

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, MAY 9. The Coimbatore District Small Industries' Association (CODISSIA) and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) have proposed a market survey to identify potential offshore markets for select farm products from the State.

The CODISSIA president, Tee. Narayanaswami and the chairman of the Agri Intex 2004, V. Ranganathan, said that this was planned under the Market Access Initiative (MAI) Scheme of the Centre at a total cost of Rs. 81 lakhs and a proposal in this regard was submitted to the State Government recently. It would be a country and product-based study and would be completed in 36 weeks.

The products identified were mango, mango pulp, onion, banana, chillies, gherkin, pepper, cardamom and cashewnut.

Countries to be focused were Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, the U.K, Spain, Canada, the U.S. and the UAE.

They said that Tamil Nadu was the sixth largest mango cultivator in terms of area and more than 50 varieties were cultivated in the Salem-Dharmapuri belt. The State's mango exports could be improved further.

Grape cultivation was concentrated in Coimbatore, Madurai, Tenkasi and the Cumbum Valley. Grape exports could be increased if there was focus on cultivation of special varieties.

In the case of onion, the State had a share of seven per cent of the country's acreage and five per cent of the country's production.

Tamil Nadu could take advantage of this by increasing the area under onion and cultivating it throughout the year for continuous supply.

They said that nearly 10 per cent of the total production of turmeric in the State - cultivated mainly in Erode, Salem and Coimbatore - was consumed in Tamil Nadu and the rest was sold in North India besides being exported.

The study would cover various details including the trend of production of identified commodities in each country, distribution channels and outlets, quality standards, types of farming, export promotion schemes, incentives offered by the Government and consumers' preferences, they added.

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