NCDC organized a briefing on Indian International Cooperative Trade Fair (IICTF) for Foreign Missions in India on Thursday at Jawahar Lal Nehru Bhawan, New Delhi. This fair is scheduled for 11-13 October 2019 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Uttarakhand Cooperative Minister Dhan Singh Rawat was the Chief Guest on the occasion.
NCDC MD Sundeep Nayak, Manoj K. Bharti Additional Secretary (ED & States), J.P.Meena, Senior Advisor, NCDC spoke at length on the importance of IICTF and why foreign countries should become a part of this mega event.
The hall was packed with ambassadors representing more than 50 countries during the briefing. Cooperative leaders of India including RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe, NAFED MD Sanjeev Kumar Chadha, IFFCO Marketing Head Yogendra Kumar, NAFSCOB MD Bhima Subrahmanyam, Fishcopfed MD B.K.Mishra and others were present on the occasion.
Addressing the representatives from Embassies and High Commissions, NCDC MD Sundeep Nayak dwelt on the importance of the upcoming trade fair and urged them to sign up for the event.
Highlighting the background of the event, Nayak said “The UN-FAO/ILO/ICA, NEDAC mooted the idea of IICTF in its General Assembly and NCDC decided to host the first ever trade fair”. “It is basically an idea of promoting “Cooperative to Cooperative”(C2C) business on the lines of B2B, commonly seen these days”, explained Nayak
Nayak also said it will provide a platform for trade with cooperatives directly and help them leverage benefits of economies of scale with assured scale and tractability with standardized quality, opportunity for sales promotion, marketing, B2B, networking and many other things”, he underlined.
”Anyone from cooperative, private, individual, government can become a part of this event. Visitors’ entry is free and no registration fee for NEDAC members. For disseminating the information about IICTF at International level, NCDC had organized road shows at Bangkok, Thailand, Ho-Chi-Minh-City, Vietnam and in June we are set to organize a road show at Johannesburg, South Africa” informed Nayak who has been working hard to make the 
trade fair a success.
Manoj K. Bharti Additional Secretary (ED & States) stressed upon the structure of Indian Cooperative movement and said cooperatives have their reach in each and every field. “Indian Cooperative movement has played a significant role in enhancing the overall economic growth of the country.
“Indian Cooperatives are fast modernizing and have taken up the role of educating farmers, disseminating information about new agriculture technology, capacity building and many other things”, said Bharti on the occasion.
J.P.Meena, Senior Advisor, NCDC said more than 90 percent small and marginal farmers are associated with cooperatives in India. Discussing advantages of the fair, he said the idea is to give a platform to cooperatives to interact with multi-national companies, private companies and private traders. This will help them build a network for themselves, he underlined.
In his remarks, Uttarakhand Cooperative Minister Dhan Singh Rawat thanked NCDC for organizing a mega trade fair and giving an opportunity to National and International cooperatives to showcase their products and inputs under one roof. “I extend my heartfelt thanks to NCDC for making Uttarakhand a partner of the event”, he said.
A short film on IICTF was also shown on the occasion. Unconfirmed sources said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the fair.
