During the Cooperative Week celebrations, NCUI organized an important webinar on ‘Role of Cooperatives in Export Promotion’ on 16th November,2022. The subject of export promotion was one of the sub-themes of this year’s Cooperative Week celebrations, and is one of the priority areas for the Ministry of Cooperation.
A galaxy of top representatives of cooperative organizations and experts participated as panellists during the Webinar. Dr Sudhir Mahajan, Chief Executive, NCUI, in his opening remarks, highlighted the significance of the webinar, the need to enhance export potential of small coops, and how enhancing exports of cooperative products is important for India becoming a $5 trillion economy.
Rakesh Kapur, Joint Managing Director, IFFCO, in his presentation said that the setting up of a new multi-state cooperative society by the government would give a big push to exports of cooperatives, and IFFCO is looking forward to active participation in this venture. He also said that IFFCO’s focus is on increasing market penetration of Nano urea(liquid) including its exports as well as market launch of Nano DAP, Nano Copper and Nano Zinc etc.
Kapur further said that IFFCO has set up a joint venture with Govt of Sikkim by the name of ‘Sikkim IFFCO Organic Ltd’. He elaborated that IFFCO through this venture, will market the products namely dried ginger, turmeric powder and flakes, large cardamom, etc to international and domestic markets. Santosh Shukla. Joint GM, IFFCO, present on this occasion, later informed that many countries are interested in exporting Nano urea.
‘The success of Amul was because it identified Bombay as a market’, observed Jayen Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, Amul, who highlighted the good work of Amul, backed up by the strong support of small dairy farmers, in enhancing the exports of dairy products. He felt that a similar template should emerge in other areas, with the support of small farmers, in other cooperatives, so as to enhance the exports of coop products of diverse types.
Mehta felt that the setting up of a multi-state cooperative society, with Amul as the nodal agency, and support of other coops like IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NAFED, etc, would give a big push to exports of cooperative products, which would enhance the income of the farmers and help in doubling of farmers’ income.
AK Rath, Additional MD, NAFED, in his presentation, while highlighting the export activities of NAFED, more importantly, the export of rice to 22 countries, with 403 crore business last year, said that cooperatives, instead of competing with each other on export front, should unite to get better results. He was very optimistic that the setting up of a multi-state coop society would play a pivotal role in this regard.
Prakash Naiknavare, MD, National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, said that India has emerged as the largest exporter of sugar, and in sugar production, it has overtaken Brazil. Expressing happiness that the sugar sector is performing well, with a smile on the faces of consumers, and cane producing farmers,he said that out of 11.2 million tons of sugar exports last year, the share of sugar cooperatives was 55%. He asked other cooperatives like NAFED, etc to prioritize sugar exports through the medium of cooperatives, rather than any other agency, for which NFCSF would like to collaborate.
Rajiv Santogi, Consultant, APEDA, in his presentation, while highlighting the major role of APEDA in agri-exports, said that APEDA has forged many collaborations with cooperative organizations like NAFED, NCDC, NCUI, VAMNICOM, NABARD, etc in various areas like capacity- building, which he felt is very important to create awareness and disseminate right information.
Santogi said that cooperative organizations should identify the areas of exports, and with APEDA’s support in branding, financial assistance of various schemes, and market assistance, etc, this can be a win-win situation for all.
Imtiaz, Asst Director, NCDC, who in his presentation said that NCDC few years back, had organized a very successful International Cooperative Trade Fair, further elaborated that NCDC is primarily involved in financing of exports of cooperatives, and is involved in organizing various training programs/workshops in areas of cooperative exports.
Sanjay Verma, Director, Pub/PR, NCUI, coordinated and anchored the program. More than 200 participants took part in the webinar.