Indian horticulture faces Chinese challenge

[rgiridhar]

10-oct-07

India’s horticulture industry will face stiff competition from China, Pakistan and Australia unless the country takes right export strategies, says a report from a leading research agency.

The report from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations said mainly the threat arises from countries like China that have a huge production base, efficient supply Chain and better infrastructural facilities.

“China, Pakistan and Australia can give India a tough competition if right export strategies are not adopted,” it said.

Fruit exports from India have increased over four-fold during the past four years and value of exports has gone up 10 times.

The report points out that maximum number of fruits and vegetables are exported to Bangladesh, while some vegetables such as brinjal have found a market in the UK, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and France.

The United Arab Emirates imports around 60% of papaya, sapota, pineapple and pumpkins from India. Other major export markets for horticultural products are Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia.

The report said that China’s horticultural economy has advantages with varied agro-climatic regions and abundance of labour and competition from Pakistan and Australia would become intense in commodities like mango, guava, potato and grapes.

In fruit exports, India is the world’s largest producer of banana, mango and guava and second largest in lemon after Mexico. In case of vegetables, the country is the largest producer of peas and ranks second in brinjal, onion, cabbage and cauliflower.

It pointed out that horticultural development will help India in overall economic growth through generation of foreign exchange and uplift the small and marginal farmers.

It added that the Horticulture Mission aims at doubling the production of fruits and vegetables in the country by 2010. It is estimated that the production of fruits and vegetable would increase to 66.9 metric tonne and 131 metric tonne respectively by 2010 and almost double by 2015.