Desi grapes en route to China

It8217;s part of a de-risking model India has learnt the hard way. In 2003, Indian grapes were rejected by the European Union because of the pesticide residue 8212; they found remains of 78 pesticides. 8216;8216;This came as a huge wake-up call for the industry and apart from setting best practices in place, the government also decided to expand to non-traditional markets like China, Poland, Russia, Norway, Sri Lanka, Middle East and so forth.8217;8217;

As a result, at the buyer-seller meet, the first of its kind in the country, there were 22 importers from 14 non-traditional countries, including one from Spain, said Dave. APEDA expects to export 12,000 tonnes of grapes in non-traditional markets over the next six months worth Rs 75-80 crore. India exported 35,000 tonnes of grapes last year and 8216;8216;we expect to go beyond 40,000 tonnes this year in our traditional market that is European Union.8217;8217;

Dave said India can hope for market access to Japan by June. 8216;8216;Japanese teams have studied our pests and diseases protocols and another team is coming in April.8217;8217;