Indian bananas go global

[rgiridhar]

Indian bananas go global
Financial Chronicle, 12-May-08


INDIAN bananas are set to become the flavour of the world. Maharashtra based contract farming firm Desai Fruits and Vegetables (DFV) has signed a multi crore deal to export bananas to a group of traders west Asian countries.

DFV is also in talks with retail chains in the European Union countries and Japan. The company has already flagged off its first consignment, an 18 tonne container, on Sunday to Jeddah, UAE-based Sharbatly Fruit Company.

At present, DFV has more than 2,500 acres of land under contract farming of which 800 acres is under banana cultivation.

“In the next three years, we plan to ramp up banana cultivation to 10,000 acres with over 2,500 farmers working on it,” DFV head Ajit Desai told Financial Chronicle.

At present, India’s presence in the world banana market is abysmally small.

This, despite the fact that India is the largest produc er of banana in the world, accounting for over 23 per cent of the global output. Over 5 lakh small and medium farmers are involved in banana cultivation and about onethird of India’s fruits production is accounted for by banana alone.

Banana exports have been an area of concern for the commerce ministry. Government has asked Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), in collaboration with the National Horticulture Mission, to take up the creation of storage, packhouse and cold storage infrastructure in key banana cultivation clusters with export potential.

Similar facilities will be created in important importing nations, as has been created by APEDA for flowers in Rotterdam and is being planned in Dubai and Tokyo soon.

Globally, in terms of volume bananas are the most exported fruit, while they rank second after citrus fruit in terms of value.

Only one-fifth the total banana produced is internationally traded.

The banana industry is a very important source of income, employment and export earnings for major banana exporting countries, mainly developing countries in Latin America, Caribbean, as well as in Asia and Africa.

According to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, while world banana exports are valued a total of over $4,7 billion per year, making them a vital source of earnings to many countries, it is at the local and regional level where a strong bond is established between banana-generated income and household food security.

Export volume or price changes bring about income changes for those directly employed in banana production, both as smallholder farmers and as wage earners on banana plantations. Also, secondary and tertiary industries and their employees feel the impacts of those changes, the report said.