World Trade Centre Bhubaneswar and NABARD Regional Office Bhubaneswar organized a seminar on “Marketing & International Trade Focusing on Agriculture Exports” on March 15, 2019 at Conference Room, Raptani Bhavan, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar. 

Shri. A. Chandrashekhar, Chief General Manager, NABARD Regional Office, Bhubaneswar inaugurated the Seminar. In his inaugural address Shri. Chandrashekhar, deliberated on the various efforts being taken by NABARD in its constant endeavor to promote the growth of Agriculture Sector of the nation. While lauding the initiative of organizing the seminar he welcomed the formulation of the new Agriculture Export Policy 2018 at a right time frame when the exports are flourishing. He also shared his insights on the challenges faced by the seasonal exporters as compared to the established ones. He further emphasized on providing the necessary support to the farmer groups in terms of infrastructure such as cold storage, research & development as well as capacity building & training. “Such initiatives are more and more essential right from the grass root level so as to create the linking the farmers with the Global Value Chains” said Shri. Chandrashekhar. 

Shri. P.K. Mohapatra, Deputy General Manager, NABARD Regional Office, Bhubaneswar in his opening address shared his insights on the new export policy of the Government of India. He emphasized on the critical aspects such as better price discovery, capacity building, training, efficient planning of business etc. for promoting the agriculture sector in India. “It is highly essential that to promote indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports. For this we should prepare our farmers from the base level to explore and effectively utilize the digitalized marketing techniques” said Shri. Mohapatra. 

Shri. Pradipta Mohanty, Convener, WTC Agriculture & Food Processing Think Tank in his address spoke about the increase in agriculture production and emphasized on the need to shift the focus on exports of agriculture produce such as fruits & vegetables. He spoke about the vast scope for the export markets in regions such as Middle East, South East Asia, UK, European Union, USA and Japan which have been highly promising markets. He also emphasized on the necessity for leased land holdings with healthier terms & conditions. He further advocated for effective measures in order to maintain the quality of the farm produce.

Shri. P.M. Dwibedy, Deputy Director, Directorate of Export Promotion & Marketing, Government of Odisha in his address highlighted the risk aspects involved in the export business. He also explained that how the Foreign Trade Policy governs the exports and protects the exporters from the various risks involved in cross border trade. While providing a competitive depiction of the export scenario of the nation in comparison to that of others he cited examples emphasizing on the need for creating value addition to our agriculture products enabling our farmers to compete globally. 

Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan, Assistant Director, World Trade Centre Bhubaneswar earlier in her welcome address set the context by sharing the objective of the seminar with the august gathering. She also proposed the vote of thanks at the end of the inaugural session.

The first technical session was facilitated by Shri. Sukumar Dash, Secretary, Gram Bhumi Vikas Parishad. Shri. Dash in his deliverable spoke in detail about setting an organized and integrated approach for marketing the agriculture products. While elaborating on the different models of agriculture marketing he pointed on six essential action points such as preparation of SWOT analysis, a workable business plan, production of products in acceptable quality range, being well prepared for exigencies, value addition to the produce in various forms etc. 

The second technical session was facilitated by Shri. Sujay Kar, Deputy Director (Marketing), ORMAS, Bhubaneswar shared practical examples of the hurdles faced in agriculture marketing. He spoke in depth about the various aspects of production management right from procurement, logistic, packaging till timely delivery of the product. He also touched upon the importance of critical points such as waste management in order to have a stabilized profit. 

The third and final technical session was facilitated by Shri. Eknath Birari, Faculty from World Trade Institute Mumbai. Mr. Birari in his deliverables covered a detailed course on the intricacies of starting an export business, export procedures, processing of an export order, export finance and risk management. 

The seminar was attended by more than 75 participants from different FPOs, APs, SHGs, NGOs and Agriculture entrepreneurs.