India's exports of fruits and vegetables are rising but they still remain abysmally low when compared with production, the government said today.
"The low share in exports vis-a-vis production is because of high domestic consumption, fragmented food supply chain, small land holdings, lack of appropriate infrastructure, high cost of logistics, difficulties in meeting global standards, high international transportation costs, etc," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Scindia said fruits and vegetables exports have risen by 17 per cent till January of the 2008-09 fiscal, compared with the whole of the previous financial year.
India has shipped abroad 20.26 lakh tonnes of vegetables and fruits till January of the 2008-09 fiscal against 17.24 lakh tonnes during the entire 2007-08 fiscal.
While vegatables have accounted for 16.76 lakh tonnes of the outbound shipment till January 2009, fruits contributed 3.49 lakh tonnes.
The exports of both fruits and vegetables, in value terms, has risen to Rs 2,661.81 crore from Rs 2437.33 crore during the review period.
Bangladesh and the UAE remained India's top export destinations in this segment.
