The private sector, and not the government, should drive change to improve Indian produce’s food safety, according to an Indian government official.
Sanjay Dave, director of India’s export authority Apeda, part of the ministry of commerce, said India’s retailers should come up with a grower code of conduct and set about implementing it to guarantee safe produce reaches domestic consumers.
Addressing delegates at the Fresh Produce India Conference organised by Asiafruit Magazine in Mumbai on Friday (24 April) he said: “It is extremely important that retailers look at how they source their produce. Retailers must reach out to the farmers, have good agricultural practices implemented, talk to them about pesticides. I would suggest retailers come together and agree on a code of conduct.
“The lead will have to be taken by the organised retail sector, then it will trickle down to the other sectors,” said Dave. “Why should the government always set up these practices and standards? Why shouldn’t retailers set up their own.”
Dave’s comments provoked lively debate at the conference, with some delegates strongly disagreeing.
Putting the onus of food safety on retailers and asking them to set up production standards at the back-end of the supply chain would be a herculean task, said Sumit Saran of retailer the Future Group.
And Naresh Jawa of supply chain provider Allfresh Supply Chain Management said the government, and not the privat sector, needed to implement a consistent policy.
However Dave said that the percentage of India’s GAP-certified production would only increase if domestic retailers insisted growers supplying them were GAP accredited.
“The percentage of India’s GAP-certified production is miniscule. It is only within India’s export community that it is implemented because importing countries insist on it,” he said.
Dave added that India had done a great deal to improve the safety of its export produce, but that India was still not where it wanted to be in terms of export volumes.
“Now we have our online traceability system Hortinet, this traceability system is available nowhere else in the world,” he said.
Dave said that Indian government agencies were also working on harmonising India’s food safety standards with those set internationally.
The government was also setting up new residue testing laboratories, and investing in more domestic produce inspectors, he said.
“Consumers are demanding safe products and are willing to pay more for this. The government has a responsibility to bring in standards that guarantee this,” said Dave.
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