Rise in FAO price index to promote agri exports: Union Minister Piyush Goyal

Nellore: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal informed in the House that the prices of cereals were on the rise and the FAO Food Price Index for Cereals has risen from 99.3 per cent in April 2020 to 129.4 per cent in June 2021 providing an opportunity for food exports benefiting farmers.

Responding to a question raised by the Rajya Sabha member Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy on Friday, the Union Minister said that the government has introduced a comprehensive Agriculture Export Policy (AEP) to harness export potential of Indian agriculture and raise farmers' income to promote agricultural exports.

He added the Department of Commerce has taken several steps to implement AEP at State/District level and State Level Monitoring Committees (SLMCs), Nodal Agencies for agricultural exports and Cluster Level Committees have been formed in several states and state-specific action plans have been prepared. Country and product-specific action plans have also been formulated to promote exports.

A Farmer Connect Portal has been set up for providing a platform for farmers, Farmer-Producer Organisations (FPOs) and cooperatives to interact with exporters. Buyer-Seller Meets (BSMs) have been organised in the clusters to provide export-market linkages, the minister stated.

Piyush Goel said the government has also introduced a Central Sector Scheme –'Transport and Marketing Assistance for Specified Agriculture Products' – for providing assistance for the international component of freight to mitigate the freight disadvantage for the export of agriculture products.