India gearing toward significantly increasing its banana exports

Significant potential of exporting Fresh fruit from India to Russia 

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry facilitated the export of bananas from India to Russia via Sea by M/s. Gurukrupa Corporation Pvt. Ltd. a Mumbai-based exporter of fruits and vegetables regularly exporting fresh fruits and vegetables to the EU and the Middle East. 

A consignment of 20 MT (1540 boxes) of bananas was flagged off on 17th February 2024 from Maharashtra by Chairman, APEDA, Shri Abhishek Dev in a collaborative effort with the Central Institute of Sub-tropical Horticulture (CISH). APEDA highlighted the development of sea protocol employed for this shipment by CISH for maintaining the quality of fruit in transit.

Chairman APEDA encouraged more exporters to employ novel methods in shipping new products to new destinations, with APEDA supporting and facilitating these endeavors. He highlighted APEDA’s financial assistance scheme, which now is putting special emphasis on supporting women entrepreneurs. He applauded the contribution of CISH in the development of the sea protocols and congratulated all personnel for a successful flag-off.  

Recently, Russia has shown keen interest in the procurement of tropical fruits from India with bananas being one of them, which significantly is a major Agri import of Russia, which was presently, primarily being imported from Ecquador, in Latin America.

The major export destinations for Indian bananas include Iran, Iraq, UAE, Oman, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and the Maldives. Additionally, the USA, Russia, Japan, Germany, China, the Netherlands, the UK, and France present India with abundant export opportunities.

The consignment was flagged off under the banner of M/s. Gurukrupa Corporation Pvt., Ltd, the women entrepreneurship is a prolific registered exporter of APEDA. M/s. Gurukrupa Corporation procured bananas directly from farmers of Andhra Pradesh. After harvesting, banana was brought to an APEDA approved packhouse in Maharashtra where it was graded, sorted, packed, boxed and stuffed in containers. The container was transported to JNPT for further voyage to Novorossiysk port, Russia for the final destination at Moscow Russia.

Banana is a major horticultural produce with Andhra Pradesh being the largest banana-producing state in India, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. These five states collectively contribute around 67 percent to India's banana production in the fiscal year 2022-23.

Despite being the largest global producer of bananas, India’s exports do not reflect this quantitative evaluation. India’s export share in the global market is only 1% even though the country accounts for 26.45 percent of the world's banana production (35.36 Million Metric Ton). In the fiscal year 2022-23, India exported bananas worth USD 176 million, equivalent to 0.36 MMT. 

Within the next five years, Banana exports from India are expected to achieve the target of 1 billion USD. This achievement will ensure an increase in farmers’ income and improve the livelihood of more than 25,000 farmers, and is estimated to generate employment for more than 50,000 aggregators directly or indirectly linked to the supply chain.  

The increase in the export of agricultural and processed food products is a result of various initiatives undertaken by APEDA to promote agricultural and processed food product exports, such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product-specific and general marketing campaigns with the active involvement of Indian Embassies with special focus on natural, organic, and Geographical Indication (GI) tagged agro-products.

APEDA is making continuous efforts to promote exports of fresh fruits and vegetables. Continuous efforts in promoting exports of fresh fruits and vegetables especially to long-distance destinations, despite their perishable quality, by the development of sea protocols to retain their attributes is a key goal for APEDA moving forward.

Export facilitation for bananas via sea protocols expands market access and supports women entrepreneurs in long distance fresh fruit shipments. APEDA-facilitated sea shipment of Indian bananas to Russia used developed sea protocols to maintain quality, with logistics from farmer procurement and packhouse grading to containerised shipping, and emphasised financial assistance, women entrepreneur support, collaboration with research institutions, and broader export promotion measures aimed at expanding market diversification and increasing export-driven farmer income.