PAU centre takes part in online meet to boost agri exports, processed foods

The NIDHI-TBI team at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), along with its incubatees, participated in an online meeting organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), recently.

The APEDA, functioning under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, is responsible for promoting the export of agricultural and processed food products from the country. The meeting highlighted the growing importance of agribusiness in India’s export landscape and introduced one of APEDA’s pioneering initiatives — the Export Enablement Acceleration Programme, titled BHARATI (Bharat’s Hub for Agritech, Resilience, Advancement and Incubation for Export Innovation).

This first-of-its-kind national initiative aims to address ground-level challenges, faced in promoting agri exports, by transitioning from primary agri-based bulk trading to high-value, innovative processed food exports by nurturing Indian agri and food startups to develop globally competitive brands, enhancing trade facilitation through technology interventions across the agricultural value chain and identifying innovative solutions to tackle SPS/TBT issues in agri exports.

In line with this, APEDA sought collaboration from state agricultural universities and incubation centres to identify promising agri startups with export potential. Representing NIDHI-TBI and SBS, PAU, at the meeting were Dr Ramandeep Singh, Principal Investigator, NIDHI-TBI and Director, School of Business Studies; Dr Babita, Professor, School of Business Studies; Gurinder Singh, CEO; and Sameer Gautam, Business Manager. The team encouraged PAU’s incubatees to leverage the BHARATI platform and apply to explore global opportunities.

Speaking after the meeting, Dr Ramandeep Singh emphasised that such initiatives can play a transformative role in creating export opportunities by enabling startups, researchers and innovators to achieve export readiness and enhance their global competitiveness.