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Thailand keen on exporting fruits to India
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Saturday, 13 May, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Bosky Christopher, Mumbai
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rting a large variety of delicious fruits like rambutan, mangosteen and longan to India, Satish Sehgal, Director, Board of Trade of Thailand, said here at a seminar on "India-Thailand Business Opportunities" organised by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI).
Welcoming a high-level trade delegation from Thailand to an interactive session, Limji Nanabhoy, Co-Chairman, Agri-business Committee of BCCI, said that after the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) inked with Thailand bilateral trade between India and Thailand had gone up to $2 bn, but there was scope for expanding this much further.
Speaking of the country's food processing industry, he said that India was the second largest producer of vegetables in the world and was producing 150 million tonnes of fruits and vegetables annually. On the other hand, he added, food processing in the country was only two per cent, which showed a great potential for growth.
Inviting the Thai delegates to join the growth sector in India, Limji stated that the two countries could learn and benefit from each other.
Sehgal said that exporting such fruits to India would not harm the interests of India's farmers because those were not produced in India. "Exporting agricultural products to India is quite a sensitive area, but we can export those products which are not grown by Indian farmers. Fruits like rambutan, longan, mangosteen etc. can be easily exported to India. Look, it's not that India is not importing fruits. Also, India can export its mangoes, but the problem is that we ourselves produce mangoes. But we have seasonal shortages which can be filled up by Indian produce," Sehgal said.
Thai rambutans, mostly grown in the south and east of the country, are sweet and succulent. It has favourite varieties like Ngoh Rong Rien and Ngoh Si Chompoo. Longans, on the other hand, are sweet with pinkish-white flesh which energise the body. Longan is used as dessert either with syrup, sticky rice or tapioca. Mangosteen, which is known as the queen of fruits, has a sweet, sharp taste.
Significantly, Thailand exports both fresh and processed fruits, mostly to Malaysia and China. Thailand's export value of fruits alone amounts to about $1bn annually.
It's expected that the value of total trade between India and Thailand may increase manifold if non-conventional items including agro products are traded.
Sehgal further stated that India and Thailand have very exciting prospects for increasing mutual trade and business particularly in the food processing and infrastructure sectors. He also stated that Thailand was keen to participate in the construction business in India, where there was increased focus on development of infrastructure.
In fact, India-Thailand bilateral trade has already doubled in the last five years to reach at $2 bn per year. Till five years back, bilateral trade was hovering around $600-700 mn annually. In the last few years, India's Look East policy coupled with Thailand's Look West policy boosted the trade ties between the two countries.
India and Thailand are exploring opportunities to double the annual trade to $4 billion in the next two years and expand the list of items that could be traded from 82 to about 5,000 in the same period. "We are planning an exhibition-cum-seminar in India in November this year. The idea is to create awareness of Thai products including our agro items among Indians," said
Sehgal. Besides Mumbai, the Thai delegation also visited Delhi and Chennai during its seven-day visit to India.
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