Parliament Question: Funds for APEDA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 234 ANSWERED ON 02/12/2025 Funds FOR APEDA

234. SHRI DARSHAN SINGH CHOUDHARY Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मंत्री) be pleased to

state:

(a) whether Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority

(APEDA) needs sufficient budget to achieve its goals more effectively as it can provide more financial support, training, and market access to exporters with the availability of the same, if so, the details thereof;

(b) the steps being taken by the Government to improve technical and financial support to farmers and exporters;

(c) the plan to provide more advanced and focused training to exporters and farmers regarding international standards, quality control and marketing strategies; and

(d) the steps being taken to make market development schemes of APEDA more effective to help exporters access new international markets? ANSWER वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मंत्रालय में राज्यमंत्री (श्री णिणिन प्रसाद) THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) 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 export of its Scheduled products which includes 17 product categories covering nearly 800 tariff lines of fresh fruits and vegetables, processed food products and animal food products. APEDA is the registered proprietor for Basmati Rice and also functions as the Secretariat for implementation of National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) for organic products.

In order to perform the assigned functions with respect to its Scheduled products, adequate funds are required, for which APEDA is working on augmenting its funds and resources through internal mobilization, convergence with schemes of related line Ministries and Departments of the Government of India and seeking funds from the Government under the upcoming 16th Finance Commission Cycle (2026-31).

(b) & (c) To strengthen the capabilities of stakeholders across the agri-export value chain, including farmers, FPOs (Farmers Producers Organization), exporters, APEDA has scaled up its training and capacity building initiative. Focused training and capacity buildingsessions are being undertaken in physical and hybrid mode, in coordination with the State Government agencies, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), research institutions, Agriculture Universities and institutions like NIFTEM (National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management), CFTRI (Central Food Technological Research Institute) etc. to sensitize on international standards, importing country requirements, Good Agricultural Practices, quality control, improved packaging, marketing strategies etc. In the current fiscal, till date, more than 900 training and capacity building sessions have been conducted across India, with participation of nearly 1 lakh stakeholders.

(d) APEDA engages with its stakeholders through its headquarters and network of regional offices, on a weekly basis to seek their feedback and resolution of issues. With respect to the market development component, a system of obtaining feedback is in place from participants (exhibitors, buyers etc) of trade fairs, buyer-seller meets, so as to make APEDA’s participation more effective. Detailed feedback has also been obtained for all the scheme components, including the market development for amendment and updation of the Scheme and its guidelines in the forthcoming 16th Finance Commission cycle (2026-31).

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