Parliament Question: Empowerment of APEDA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No. 460 ANSWERED ON 24/03/2026 EMPOWERMENT OF APEDA *460. SHRI DARSHAN SINGH CHOUDHARY: (वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मंत्री) Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has empowered the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) with adequate budget and resources to provide financial assistance, training and international market access to the farmers and exporters; (b) if so, the number of farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and exporters who received financial assistance, training or marketing support through APEDA during the last five years; (c) whether the Government proposes to formulate any scheme or introduce any reforms to make the process of providing technical and financial assistance more simple, expeditious and transparent, if so, the details thereof; and (d) whether any time-bound roadmap has been prepared to provide further assistance to the exporters and the farmers through APEDA for enhancing competitiveness in global markets, adherence to quality standards and brand promotion in the future, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मंत्रालय में मंत्री (श्री पीयूष गोयल) THE MINISTER IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL) (a) to (d) A statement is laid on the Table of the House. *****STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY OF PART (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 460 FOR ANSWER ON 24th MARCH, 2026 REGARDING “EMPOWERMENT OF APEDA” (a) to (d) The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is a statutory body established under APEDA Act, 1985, which has been assigned the mandate to promote the exports of its Scheduled products, as specified under Section 10(2) of the APEDA Act, 1985. The functions include development of Industries by way of providing financial assistance, conducting studies and feasibility studies, exploring markets for potential products for exports, inspection of meat and meat products for ensuring quality exports, improving packaging, marketing of the scheduled products outside India, promoting export oriented production and development of exports, training in various aspects of the industries and concerned stakeholders to promote exports. At present, Financial assistance is provided to APEDA’s stakeholders under the "Agriculture and Processed Foods Export Promotion Scheme of APEDA" for the 15th Finance Commission Cycle (2021-22 to 2025-26) in three components: (i) Development of Export Infrastructure, (ii) Quality Development, (iii) Market Development. Scheme guidelines are available at https://apeda.gov.in/FinancialAssistanceSchemes. During 15th Finance Commission period, APEDA has been sanctioned a budget outlay of Rs. 405.02 crores for the implementation of the Scheme. The following are the details regarding the component wise assistance to Stakeholders, as on date: Component Number of Beneficiaries Amount of Assistance Development of Export 137 Rs.122.02 Crores Infrastructure Quality Development 130 Rs.41.00 Crores Market Development 1815 Rs.242.00 crores Total 2082 Rs.405.02 Crores To strengthen the capabilities of stakeholders across the agri-export value chain, including of farmers, FPOs, exporters, APEDA has scaled up its training and capacity building initiative. Focused training and capacity building sessions are being undertaken in physical and hybrid mode, in coordination with the State Government agencies, Krishi Vikas Kendras, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) research institutions, agricultural universities, and institutions like National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), etc to sensitize stakeholders on international standards, importing country requirements, Good Agricultural practices, quality control, improved packaging, marketing strategies etc. The details ofAPEDA's training and Capacity Building programmes, for three financial years, as per available data, is as under: 2023-24 2024-25 2025-26 (As on 01.03.26) Number of Training & Capacity 255 934 1582 Building sessions Number of Participants (including 30,384 88,026 1,65,226 farmers and FPOs) For the upcoming 16th Finance Commission Cycle (2026-27 to 2030-31), APEDA has formulated a revised financial assistance scheme, wherein revisions have been proposed to make the scheme simpler, expeditious and transparent based on feedback taken by APEDA from its stakeholders and on the basis of the recommendations of the third-party evaluation of the scheme conducted as prescribed by the NITI Aayog. APEDA's support to its stakeholders including exporters and farmers for enhancing competitiveness in global markets, adherence to quality standards and brand promotion is an ongoing process. With respect to training and capacity building of stakeholders, there will be an effort to maximize district coverage across all States/UT's in India, in physical/virtual mode. Further, financial assistance is provided on receipt of applications from stakeholders. Selection of an applicant stakeholder is subject to meeting the eligibility requirements, compliance with the scheme guidelines and available resources. To enhance coverage, APEDA is working on augmenting its resources through internal mobilization, convergence with schemes of related line Ministries and Departments of the Government of India and seeking enhanced funds from the Government under the upcoming 16th Finance Commission Cycle (2026-31), which is under submission with the Ministry of Finance for consideration. *****