In a bid to promote exports of locally sourced Geographical Indications (GI) tagged agricultural products, Centre has been striving to identify new products and new export destinations.

While Darjeeling Tea and Basmati Rice are the two popular GI-tagged agricultural products of India, which have ready markets across the globe, there is a host of GI-tagged products in various corners of the country which have niche but loyal customers and need to be marketed properly to reach more potential buyers.

In line with Prime Minister’s call for ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, the Centre, through Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been facilitating trial shipments into new markets world wide for products such as Kala Namak rice, Naga Mircha, Assam Kaji Nemu, Bangalore Rose Onion, Nagpur Oranges, GI varieties of Mangoes, GI-tagged Shahi Litchi, Bhalia wheat, Madurai Malli, BardhamanMihidana and Sitabhog, Dahanu Gholvad Sapota, Jalgaon Banana, Vazhakulam Pineapple, Marayoor Jaggery, etc.

Notable shipments of GI products in 2021 included export of Naga Mircha (King Chilli) from Nagaland to UK, Black Rice from Manipur and Assam to the United Kingdom, Assam Lemon to the United Kingdom and Italy, three GI varieties of Mango (Fazli, Khirsapati, and Laxmanbhog) from West Bengal and one GI variety of Mango (Zardalu) from Bihar to Bahrain and Qatar. Around 30 kgs of a sample shipment of Joynagar Moa, a sweetmeat delicacy from South 24 Pargana district of West Bengal was sent via Kolkata airport to Bahrain.

In a major thrust to exports of GI-tagged products from Bihar, the first shipment of 524 Kg GI tagged Shahi Litchi was exported from Muzaffarpur district of Bihar to London in May 2021. The year also witnessed the export of GI tagged Banaganapalle Mango from Andhra Pradesh to South Korea.