Shadow over grape export to EU lightens.

New Delhi: The deadlock over India’s grapes export to the European Union, which had come under a cloud following the presence of chlormequat, a chemical residue, in some consignments has shown some signs of easing as UK and Sweden have started accepting Indian grapes by adhering to their own maximum residue level (MRL).

But, a big hurdle still remains from Germany and Netherlands , who are yet to clear grapes consignment from India because of safety concerns.

Netherlands in one of the largest buyers of Indian grapes and officials feel that any loss of market could hurt overall fruit exports from the country.

According to trade sources, most of the rejected containers are lying at Rotterdam ( Netherlands ) port. There are 140 farmers in Maharashtra registered for exports.

India is aiming to increase its grapes exports to the EU to around 44,000 tonne from 37,000 tonne achieved last year because of poor supplies from Chile .

Indian exporters say it is difficult to follow food safety guidelines in European Union as all member-nations have their own rules.

In the case of chlormequat, the 27-member European Union has not formulated any specific maximum residue level (MRL).

“In the absence of any specific norms we have been following the default level of 0.05 gm per kg standard,” a grape exporter from Pune told FE.

The maximum permissible level is 1 gm per kg in the country. The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) in its latest safety study report stated that no acute consumer health risk is expected if table grapes with a mean chlormequat residue concentration of 1.06 gm per kg are consumed. “We are constantly in touch with EU officials and hope to find a solution to this problem shortly,” an Apeda official said.

Trades sources said that there 98 types of pesticide residue whose presence in the grapes consignment need to be tested.

However, due the absence of coherent norms in the EU, exporters have been are yet to decide on whether any tests should be conducted on the grapes consignment. The exporters are worried that time is running because of grape export period is only in the range of six to seven weeks. “We have already lost two weeks and any further delay would result in huge financial loss,” a grape exporter said

Maximum amount of grapes in India is exported from Maharashtra followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. some years back, Apeda had launched an internet based residue traceability software system called ‘GrapeNet,’ for monitoring fresh grapes exported from India to the EU.

GrapeNet was first of its kind initiative in the country to put in place an end-to-end system for monitoring pesticide residue

India exports grapes worth close to Rs 500 crore mostly to EU and Gulf countries. The total volume of exports has been around 80,000 tonne annually.

The total market of grapes is worth Rs 10,000 crore in the country

Source : Financial Express