In a bid to strengthen the foot-print of India’s agricultural and processed food products export to Nepal, APEDA organized a virtual Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) in association with Indian Embassy, Kathmandu.

The BSM was organised yesterday on 23rd March 2021 where key stakeholders such as officials and trade representatives from India and Nepal came on a common platform to discuss the strategic cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sector.

The BSM with Nepal is the seventeenth in the series of such virtual meets organized by APEDA in last few months. The focus of BSMs have been to engage with all potential countries for providing a platform to connect exporters and importers in the agriculture and allied sectors.

Officials from APEDA, Indian Embassy, Kathmandu, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal and Nepal Chamber of Commerce and other stakeholders participated in the virtual meet.Exporters from India and importers of Nepal had interactions with each other during BSM.

Since the COVID19 pandemic, there was a shift of focus towards India &neighboring trade partners creating new opportunities for alliance between various countries. Since the two countries enjoy a long-term association, India continued to ensure the food and nutrition supplies to Nepal during the COVID19 difficult times.

In 2019-20, India’s- total merchandise trade with Nepal stood at USD 7.87 billion. APEDA products export to Nepal was worth of USD 670.6 million (volume of shipment 1,896,915 Metric Tonne).

India’s principal exports items during 2019-20 included Non-Basmati Rice, Cereal Preparations, Miscellaneous Preparations, Maize and Ground nuts etc. During the same period, India’s agricultural import from Nepal were processed items, cereal products, processed fruits & juices, alcoholic beverages and processed vegetables etc.

Agricultural export promotion expanded through virtual buyer seller meet to connect exporters and importers across borders. APEDA convened a virtual Buyer Seller Meet to strengthen export opportunities for agricultural and processed food products with a neighbouring market, bringing together exporters, importers, embassy officials, trade representatives, ministries and chambers to facilitate commercial linkages, market access discussions and strategic cooperation. The outreach formed part of a series of virtual BSMs aimed at connecting exporters and importers, supported by cited bilateral trade figures and identified principal export and import commodity groups to highlight market potential amid pandemic-driven regional trade focus.