The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is an Export Promotion Council founded by Government of India under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) Act 1985. With this act coming into effect, APEDA replaced the Processed Food Export Promotion Council (PFEPC).
We have covered some of the major initiatives undertaken by APEDA in this article such as - Registration of Exporters through RCMC and how to apply for it online, Financial Assistance Scheme for its members and Measures for Ease of Doing Business, through which it regulates and promotes growth of agricultural and processed food exports.
The objective behind establishing APEDA was to promote the growth of export of agricultural products (listed below) which have been specified under APEDA Act. It does so through measures such as:-
An exporter can apply for APEDA's membership if he supplies any of the following products:-
As per Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985 any person exporting any of the scheduled products listed above must apply to APEDA for a Registration Cum Membership Certificate (RCMC) after one month from the date on which he undertakes such export.
After being registered with APEDA an exporter can avail benefits such as financial assistance schemes, receive guidelines related to export of scheduled products, access to trainings and seminars which will improve the performance of their export business.
RCMC was earlier issued manually, however with the ease of doing business initiative being implemented across all government bodies, the registration for RCMC has been made available online.
One of the functions of APEDA as an Export Promotion Council is to develop businesses involved in export of scheduled products by providing them financial assistance. For this APEDA has rolled out its Financial Assistance Scheme which has three major components - Infrastructure, Quality & Market Development. If any expenses incurred by an export business for activities which fall under any one of these components, then the exporter can file a claim with APEDA for a rebate on the same.
Under this APEDA provides financial assistance to exporters for establishment of harvest infrastructure facilities for fresh horticulture produce such as integrated pack house, insulated reefer transport, mobile pre-cooling units, cable handling system for banana etc. A claim can be filed for up to 40% of the total cost with a ceiling of Rs 100 Lakhs for each activity. The budget allocated for this component in 2019-20 is Rs 83 crores.
Under quality development, costs incurred on activities such as implementation of food safety management systems, standardisation & sarmonization with international standards and procuring hand-held devices for capturing farm level peripheral coordinates for traceability systems are eligible for a refund for up to 40% of the total cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 4 Lakhs for each beneficiary. The budget for Quality Development component in 2019-20 is Rs 56.6 crores.
For the Market Development component, currently APEDA provides financial assistance for activities such as new market or product development through feasibility studies, trial shipment for fresh horticulture produce and registration of brand outside India. The claims can be made up to 40% of the total cost subject to a ceiling of Rs 10 Lakhs for each activity. Market Development has been allocated a budget of Rs 46 crores under Financial Assistance Scheme.
APEDA has taken major initiatives to implement Ease of Doing Business in the agricultural exports sector. Four of its major projects under this have been discussed below.
Hortinet is an internet based integrated traceability system developed by APEDA which enables a farmer to apply online for registering his farm and then further apply online for testing and certification of Grape, Pomegranate and Vegetables for export from India to the European Union in compliance with their standards. Through this the exporters can now trace the quality and reliability of these products.
Another web based traceability system, basmati.net is aimed at providing a common platform to all stakeholders in the basmati rice supply chain such as farmers, agriculture produce markets, paddy traders, basmati rice millers and basmati rice exporters. They can enter details of their activities and through this the authenticity of the end product reaching a consumer both in and outside India can be improved.
As per the current Export and Import Policy of Government of India, each export consignment is subjected to compulsory microbiological and other tests by a Government laboratory and has to be accompanied by Health Certificate. With meat.net, a service developed by APEDA, an exporter can apply for a Health Certificate online for each export consignment of their meat product.
Peanut.net is another traceability system similar to Basmati and Hortinet created after the traceability systems project showed success. It facilitates testing and certification of peanuts for export from India with standards identified by Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine and stores quality assurance data reported by all stakeholders in the supply chain.
APEDA has its headquarters in New Delhi. It has 5 regional offices at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata & Guwahati. Also, 5 Virtual Offices have been created in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland in association with respective State Governments/agencies to provide information about APEDA’s role in agricultural exports to prospective exporters. APEDA is headed by the chairman who is appointed by Central Government and he sits in New Delhi at the headquarters.