Agartala: Tripura has exported 1,000 kg of organically produced honey to the United Arab Emirates for the first time, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Monday.
Nath flagged off the consignment during the inauguration of an International Organic Buyer-Seller Meet organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at Hotel Polo Towers here.
The minister said Tripura had made significant progress in organic cultivation, with around 47,000 farmers currently engaged in organic farming and 26,000 hectares under organic cultivation.
“Before 2018, around 2,000 hectares of land in the state were used for organic cultivation. Now, 26,000 hectares of land are being used for organic cultivation, and 47,000 farmers are involved in organic farming,” Nath said.
He said the honey consignment was being exported through a farmer producer organisation (FPO) with the assistance of the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department and the Horticulture Department.
“Earlier, we had exported organic honey to other states, but we had not exported it to a foreign country. This is the first time, through an FPO, that we have exported organic honey to the UAE,” he said.
Nath said the state was producing genuine and certified organic products with support from APEDA and the Central Government.
He said Queen Pineapple, Sabri Banana, scented lemon, jackfruit, turmeric and ginger were among the products for which there was demand.
“Our main base is agriculture. Forty-eight per cent of the GSDP of our state comes from agriculture,” Nath said, adding that the government’s main aim was to double farmers’ income.
The minister said farmers were given priority in programmes organised at the rural, state and international levels.
The buyer-seller meet included technical sessions between buyers and sellers. International buyers from New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, South Korea, Italy, Argentina, Germany, Greece and the Philippines participated in the programme.
Event organisers said 20 international buyers from the nine countries attended the programme. Nath, however, referred to 21 international buyers in his remarks.
Tarun Bajaj, Senior Consultant, APEDA; Apurba Roy, Secretary, Agriculture and Horticulture; Jennifer Chang, Executive Director, IFOAM Organics Asia; and Rajib Debbarma, Mission Director, TSOFDA, were also present.