British team checks out agro business scenario

A delegation of British entrepreneurs and educationists was in Chandigarh today to gauge the potential of the agri business in Punjab and Haryana.

In the backdrop of the memorandum of understanding signed between the British Agri Food Consortium and the Confederation of Indian Food Trade and Industry on March 14, the UK trade & investment agency, Ficci, and the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation organised a seminar on "India-UK agri-food business cooperation" for the promotion of agro trade between the two countries.

British Food Consortium Chief Executive Pauline Wade told Business Standard the UK had similar kinds of trade arrangements with Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Thailand, and China.

She said it was premature to discuss the details of the trade partnership now. This visit was aimed at informing Indian companies about quality norms mandatory for selling in the UK markets, she added.

According to her, a series of diagnostic tools are applied to assess the quality of agri products in the UK. The low-cost advantage is the main attraction for UK but they do not fulfil the quality parameters.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of a seminar on "India-UK agri-business food cooperation", British High Commissioner to India Sir Micheal Aurther said there was an immense scope for the export of organic food from India. He said there was a huge demand for organic food in UK and only 2% of that was sourced from the domestic market. He added that about $40 million of food can be exported to the UK from India every year. The British High Commissioner also met the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana to discuss the possibilities of trade in food and agri products in India.

To give an impetus to the synergy between the two countries regarding the food and agri business, teachers from British Universities also participated in the seminar.

Dr Jonathon Turner from the Royal Agricultural College, UK discussed education and training in the agrifood business for Indian entrepreneurs.

The British High Commissioner told Business Standard that trade synergy could be attained through local corporate houses who could produce world class fruits and fresh vegetables. The team refused to comment on whether they would outsource the raw vegetables, value-added vegetables or UK-based entrepreneurs would be investing in food processing units in India.

They indicated that the model adopted by Bharti and Rothschild was the first UK-India collaboration in the agri food business and the incorporation of the Indian corporate sector would facilitate UK-based companies to explore the Indian farm sector in an optimum way.

A large business delegation from the UK gave presentations on food and safety standards, education and training in agrifood business, and agri-research services.