PremiumCovid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns may have brought down volumes in other businesses but there was a sharp increase in the export of mangoes and vegetables from Varanasi.
According to the Commerce Ministry, for the first time, Varanasi and its nearby areas reached out to Europe and Middle Eastern countries to export their vegetables and mangoes despite the Covid outbreak.
The ministry said, "Till March 2021, 48 metric tonnes of fresh vegetables and 10 MT of mangoes have been exported from the Varanasi cluster".
"The COVID-19 lockdown period since March last year was utilised to bring vegetables and fruits from Varanasi to the international markets through both land and sea routes. Varanasi was connected to the export markets through both air and; sea resulting in the export of fresh vegetables (green chilly, long guard, green peas and cucumber), mangoes (Banarasi, Langra, Ramkheda, and Chausa), etc to Europe and the Middle Eastern countries," Commerce Ministry officials told ANI news agency.
The officials said the exports were made possible as they connected the Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Exporters Association in Mumbai with the farmer groups in Varanasi.
Additionally, the Varanasi cluster also exported 532 MT of Black rice to Australia and New Zealand for the first time.
"...For the first time, 532 MT of Black rice was exported from Chandauli to Australia and New Zealand. Chandauli is also part of the Varanasi cluster," the official added.
The Commerce Ministry had recently stated that the country's export of agricultural and allied products in 2020-21 grew by 17.34% to $41.25 billion.
Speaking about the effort put in by the Agriculture Division of the Commerce Ministry, Deputy Director Rajan Sharma said, "In the first week of lockdown itself, around 1000 calls of exporters were attended and all the issues like the movement of consignments, trucks, labour, issuance of certificates, lab testing reports, sample collection etc faced by the exporters were addressed after taking them up with the concerned authorities viz. local administration, police, ports. shipping and foreign trade authorities and ensuring the real-time clearance of export consignments.
To help the farmer groups and exporters, the issuance of various certificates was made online and all the exporters access certificates for export, certificate of origin, health certificates, etc. through their mobile phones, without visiting the government offices, making the exports hassle-free, he added.
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