The Tea Board and the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) organized an interesting seminar on Web Enabled Traceability for organic commodity production in Kolkata on the 12th November for stakeholders, with special reference to the Tea Industry . This is understandable because Darjeeling has been a pioneer in the organic production system, and many conventional gardens which had turned ‘sick’ have been nurtured back to vibrancy by adopting the organic way – which has ensured both ecological sustainability and economic viability in a manner that is far more equitable than the ‘chemical route’ which is more input driven. However, for both the domestic and expert markets, traceability was becoming as it had become both the essential, and the necessary factor for exports.
Your columnist was invited to share his view on the subject, and also recount the experiences on organic commodities learnt during his tenure at Uttarakhand, where one of the finest programs on organic production and certification had been organized under the stewardship of the then Chief Secretary Dr R S Tolia. Uttarakhand of course had a head start, for unlike West Bengal, large parts of Uttarakhand were ‘naturally organic’ for no fertilizer had reached those parts because of the non- viability of ‘marketing fertilizers’ in the highland regions. On the contrary, because of the ‘plantation mode’ in which tea industry had been organized in west Bengal, even the remotest parts of Darjeeling and Dooars had the standard package of chemical fertilizers, and the demand for fertilizers far outstripped the supply.
First things first. The market for ‘organic products’ is increasing faster than any other commodity in the food sector. While the figures for the domestic market are not readily available, APEDA has estimated that the export market is growing by at least 30% annually, and the potential is even higher. APEDA has also estimated that the main constraint does not relate to the production practices, but to the certification procedures, time and cost factors which is inhibiting several producers, especially those in the unorganized sector. Here the question of traceability also became very important, because in the global market, food safety and traceability are the ‘new holy cows’. However, the positive news is that India is among the first countries in the world to take up web enabled organic certification, and the programme has received accolades on account of being more user friendly, transparent and low cost than the traditional certification programmes which became very expensive on account of the travel and logistics related expenditure of the experts who would physically visit the site and carry out the inspections. As more and more areas and many more commodities look towards certification to leverage their prices in both domestic and global markets, the existing system had to make way for one that allowed greater flexibility, without compromising with the standards.
This column is devoted to how the process began, and the steps that APEDA is taking to carry this forward. APEDA first took up the initiative in the case of grapes and wines – by initiating the GRAPENET programme in Maharashtra where several enterprising farmers had made a transition from conventional crops to high value horticulture and food processing with an eye on the lucrative export market. This has been followed by traceability systems for products as varied as pomegranates, groundnuts and is now capable of being extended to any commodity, if the stakeholders are willing to participate and collaborate. The programme, launched by APEDA from January this year is called ‘Tracenet’ and will be operated with Certification Bodies (CBs) which are registered with APEDA. This is expected to enhance the credibility of India’s certification procedures and organic products around the world. This also ensures that the new business opportunities that arise out of certification can be made use of by Indian agripreneurs. The Uttarakhand experience had shown that unless the certification agencies were local, substantial outflow was taking place for external certifiers. In fact the web based system will eventually support service providers from India to even undertake traceability studies aboard, because as this column has mentioned earlier, the new business opportunities in the agriculture sector will come not from pre agriculture, but the growing spectrum of agri related services all over the world.
It is in this context that APEDA’s Memorandum of understanding with Global Standards Institute assumes importance. This Brussels based body is the global watch dog for global regulatory requirements on ‘track and trace’, and assuring the buyer requirements and consumer concerns are adequately addressed. All major buyers in the global agribusiness industry, viz Wal- Mart, P&G, Metro, Unilever, Nestlé, and Kraft Foods are part of the GSI management Board, and facilitate the transactions between producers and consumers. However as mentioned in the column last week, the growing Indian middle class – which has the same purchasing power parity as the consumers in US market are also demanding similar standards. This means that the Indian producers, whether in the co-operative or the MSME sector will have to get the same standards of certification and traceability to be able to get the consumers rupee. Thus, traceability is here to stay, and play an important role in determining the market share. There is another advantage to traceability which can be of great help to the farmer…this column has earlier argued that if the raw material can be traced and tracked, it would also be possible to recompense marginal and small farmers along the value chain. This should add to farmer’s incomes…and AgriMatters therefore lends its fullest support to this initiative.