PATNA: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi (SuMo) on Monday said that the state government would “actively intervene” to promote exports from Bihar, which currently languishes at a miniscule 0.05% of the total exports from the country. The state would help in branding of products from various districts to create demand for them in the international market, he added.
“PM Narendra Modi has asked the state governments to make necessary interventions to promote exports of products and items from their respective areas,” SuMo Modi said, referring to a recent meeting addressed by the PM in which he had participated.
SuMo was the keynote speaker at seminar on ‘State Focus Paper 2020-21’ related to the annual credit plan prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). He said, “8.74 lakh metric tonne (MT) of food items worth Rs 1,748 crore were exported from the state in 2017-18 was, but it could be increased to Rs 9.35 lakh MT valued at Rs 2,500 crore.”
SuMo drew the attention of the bankers at the seminar to the annual credit plan that had allotted Rs 292 crore for disbursement among exporters from the state. “Come forward and assist them, so that more products and items could be exported from the state, which, in turn, would also increase the state’s share in the total exports from the country,” he told the bankers.
The deputy CM added that one product or item would be identified from each district for branding and its “pull-value” in the international market would be created. Among the items that he cited for identification were ‘katarni chawal and chura’ from Bhagalpur, fruits (shahi litchi, Bhagalpuri silk and ‘malda’ mango) and sweets as well as handicraft items and Madhubani paintings.
Currently, the largest share of exports from the state belongs to non-basmati rice (32%), followed by maize (29%), cereal (9.3%), wheat (6.1%), ‘makhana’, as well as fresh vegetables and honey. “The need is to do proper branding and maintaining their quality,” SuMo said.
Animal husbandry department’s principal secretary, N Vijayalakshmi, said production of fish in the state has recorded highest growth in the recent years.
“For long, Bihar remained a fish consuming state for which varieties of fish used to come from states like Andhra Pradesh, but the state is now turning into a fish producing state,” she said, adding, the gap between fish import and production in Bihar was merely 44,000 tonnes which would be overcome in the next fiscal..
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com