At this month's annual BioFach organic trade fair, to take place in Nuremberg, Germany, India will be present as country of the year.
Sanjay Dave, director of the agricultural & processed food products export development authority (APEDA), said that Indian companies would use the fair to “show the credibility and authenticity of Indian organic products, and, of course, our traceability system from production and certification to the shop”.
APEDA has been involved in drawing up common organic standards in India since 1998, implementing the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) last year.
“One of our major goals is to achieve an organic farming area of 5m ha in the coming years,” said Dave. “We want to continue to help small farmers in the certification process and naturally expand the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) in small villages as the preliminary stage of group certification for small farmers.
“We regard it as very important to provide intensive marketing for organic products in the future too. We would also like to extend and intensify the network of scientists, farmers, processors, certifiers and other market players, promote employment in the sector, strengthen the institutions and make the India Organic logo as the Indian organic label more widely known internationally.”
According to Dave, people in India are starting to pay great attention to their health and are becoming increasingly aware of the risks associated with conventional products.
“Indian consumers are therefore very interested in organic products and the demand is increasing accordingly,” he said.
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