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Apeda plans marketing centre in Europe

Vishwanath Kulkarni

Chitra Phadnis

BANGALORE, Aug. 10

THE Agricultural and Processed Food Products' Export Development Authority (Apeda) will set up a marketing centre in Europe to promote Indian products and brands in the European Union countries.

The Apeda Chairman, Mr. D. Rajagopalan, who was here on Thursday told Business Line that the centre was likely to start functioning by end-September.

The centre will be set up in collaboration with the State Trading Corporation and will be located in Frankfurt for the time being. Later, it will be relocated to Amsterdam.

``The idea behind the initiative is to help the Indian exporters promote their products,'' he said.

The floriculture industry sources said a marketing office in Europe - a major destination for Indian flowers - would definitely help it consolidate its position in the region.

Mr. Rajagopalan was here to elicit the opinion of floriculturists in Southern India on tapping the American markets. Canada and North America are being mooted as new markets for flowers after the recent debacle in the Australian market. Indian floricultu re exports to Australia this year have been severely affected because of a bumper season in that country. In addition, a levy of 10 per cent General Sales Tax and a couple of bad shipments during the Valentine's Day combined to hit shipments Down South h ard.

However, the industry is still debating whether exports to Canada and North America will be feasible, considering the distance and the freight charges.

Mr. Rajagopalan said a study would be made to assess the viability of the idea and study the markets. ``Exports to America and Canada cannot be completely ruled out. Some exporters are already sending flowers to these places and if they are doing so, I a m sure it must be viable,'' he said. He was on his way to Pune to gather the views of the growers in the western region.

The floriculture industry also brought up their pet subjects of chartered flights from Bangalore and Mumbai/Pune, for which they wanted subsidies from Apeda and waiver of interests on loans and rescheduling of payments. Mr. Rajagopalan said he had alread y written to the IDBI in this regard.

Referring to rice exports, he said the basmati rice exports were on as usual this year. The non-basmati rice exports went up only when there was a drop in international production or an increase in prices. India had managed to export around 1.5 million t onnes of rice every year and would possibly do the same this year. With the international wheat prices being lower than that of domestic prices, exports were not too good, he said.