 "millets")
Indian missions abroad would be roped in for branding, promotion and identification of global potential buyers such as departmental stores for domestic millets, the commerce ministry said on Sunday.
This exercise is part of the government's robust strategy to promote Indian millets.
The ministry is also organising a 'Millets Smart Nutritive Conclave' on Monday wherein stakeholders of the supply chain such as Farmer Producer Organisations, startups, exporters, producers of millet-based value-added products are participating, it said in a statement.
"Indian missions abroad would be roped in for branding and publicity of Indian millets, identification of international chefs as well as potential buyers such as departmental stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets for organizing B2B (business to business) meetings and direct tie-ups," it added.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will inaugurate the conclave here on Monday with a view to promoting exports of the grain.
The conclave will to be a pre-launch event of the 'International Year of Millets 2023.
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At the meet, an e-catalogue on 30 potential importing countries and 21 millet producing states will be released.
Ambassadors of foreign missions in India of the targeted countries and potential importers have also been invited to showcase various millet-based products, including ready-to- eat millet products and facilitate B2B meetings.
The Centre has also planned to organize millet promotional activities in South Africa, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Sydney, Belgium, Germany, the UK, US by facilitating participation of different stakeholders from India in some of the significant food shows, buyer-seller meets and road shows.
As part of the promotion of Indian millets, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has planned to showcase millets and its value-added product at various global platforms such as Gulfood 2023, Foodex, Seoul Food & Hotel Show, Saudi Agro Food and Fine Food Show in Sydney.
India is one of the leading producers of millets in the world with an estimated share of around 41 per cent in the global production.
As per FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), world production of millets in 2020 was 30.464 million metric tonnes (MMT) and India's share was 12.49 MMT, which is 41 per cent of the total millet production.
India recorded 27 per cent growth in millet production in 2021-22 as compared to millet production of 15.92 MMT in previous year.
India's top five millet producing states are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Share of export of millets is nearly 1 per cent in the total millet production.
Exports of millets from India include mainly whole grain and the export of value-added products of millets from India is negligible.
"However, it is estimated that the millets market is set to grow from its current market value of more than USD 9 billion to over USD 12 billion by 2025," it added.
The Centre has created the Nutri Cereals Export Promotion Forum to give impetus to the export of potential products, including millets, and to remove the bottlenecks in the supply chain of nutri cereals.
Millets have superior nutritional values in comparison to highly consumed cereals such as rice and wheat. Millets are rich in calcium, iron, and fiber that help in fortifying essential nutrients for healthy growth in children.
As per the ministry's data, India registered a growth of 8.02 per cent in export of millets in 2021-22 as the export was 159,332.16 MMT as against 147,501.08 MMT in the previous year.
India's major millet exporting countries are the UAE, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, the UK and the US.
Varieties of millets exported by India include bajra, ragi, canary, jawar, and buckwheat. The major millet importing countries in the world are Indonesia, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Italy, the US, UK, Brazil and the Netherlands.
There are 16 major varieties of millet, which are produced and exported, including sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) minor millets (kangani), proso millet (cheena), and kodo millet.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
