India’s AEZs now cover 40 agricultural products

Agri export zones (AEZs) in the country now cover about 40 different agricultural commodities spread across 20 states in the country.

All the 60 AEZs have been notified by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and have completed their span of five years, minister of state for commerce and industry D Purandeswari informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The agri export zones are set up on the basis of particular produce / products that are grown largely in a contiguous area for the purpose of developing and sourcing the raw materials, their processing / packaging, leading to final exports.

Thus, the entire effort is centered on a cluster approach of identifying the potential products, the geographical region in which these are grown and adopting an end-to-end approach of integrating the entire process, right from the stage of production till it reaches the market.

The state-wise and location-wise details of the AEZs are as follow:

Assam: Fresh & Processed Ginger at Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Nagaon, Morigaon, Karbi Anglong and North Cachar districts.

Andhra Pradesh: Mangoes at Krishna district; Mango pulp and fresh vegetables at Chittoor district; mango and grapes  at Ranga Reddy, Medak and parts Mahabob Nagar districts; gherkins in  Mahboobnagar, Rangareddy, Karimnagar, Warangal, Medak Ananthapur and Nalgonda and chillies at guntur.

Bihar: Lichee, vegetables and honeyin Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Hajipur, Vaishali, East and West Champaran, Bhagalpur, Begulsarai, Khagaria, Sitamarhi, Saran and Gopalganj.

Gujarat: Mango and vegetables: Gujarat at Ahmedabad, Khadia, Anand, Vadodra, Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Bharuch and Narmada; value added onion at Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Amreli, Rajkot, Junagadh and Jamnagar districts; Sesame seeds at Amerali, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar, Rajkot and Jamnagar.

Himachal Pradesh: Applesat Shimla, Sirmour, Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Kinnaur.

Karnataka: Gherkins Tumkur, Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Hassan, Kolar, Chitradurga, Dharwad and Bagalkot; rose onions at Bangalore urban and rural districts, Kolar; flowers at Bangalore (urban and rural), Kolar, Tumkur, Kodagu and Belgaum; vanilla at Dakshin Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Shimoga, Kodagu, Chickamagalur.

Jammu & Kashmir: Apples in the districts of Srinagar, Baramula, Anantnag, Kupwara, Badgaum and Pulwama; Walnuts at Jammu & Kashmir regions of Baramulla, Anantnag, Pulwama, Budgam, Kupwara and Srinagar and Jammu region's - Doda, Poonch, Udhampur, Rajouri and Kathua.

Jharkhand: Vegetables aty Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Ohardaga.

Kerala: Horticulture products Thrissur, Kollam, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanumthitta, Thiruvanthapuram, Idukki and Palakkod; medicinal plants at Wayanad, Mallapuram, Palakkad, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kollam, Pathanamittha, Thiruvananthapuram.

Madhya Pradesh: Potatoes, onion and garlic at Malwa, Ujjain, Indore, Dewas, Dhar, Shajajpur, Ratlam, Neemuch and Mandsaur; seed spices in districts of Guna, Mandsaur, Ujjain, Rajgarh, Ratlam, Shajapur and Neemuch; wheat (Duram) at three distinct and contiguous zones  - Ujjain Zone comprising of Neemach, Ratlam, Mandsaur and Ujjain; Indore Zone comprising Indore, Dhar, Shajapur and Dewas and Bhopal Division comprising Sehore, Vidisha, Raisen, Hoshangabad, Harda, Narsinghpur and Bhopal; lentil and grams: Shivpuri, Guna, Vidisha, Raisen, Narsinghpura, Chhindwara and Oranges at Chhindwara, Hoshangabad, Betul.

Maharashtra: Grape and grapewine at Nasik, Sanghli, Pune, Satara, Ahmednagar and Sholapur; mangos: (Alphonso variety) at Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Raigarh and Thane (Kesar variety) at Aurangabad, Beed, Jalna, Ahmednagar and Latur; flowers: Pune, Nasik, Kolhapur and Sangli; onions at Nasik, Ahmednagar, Pune Satara, Jalgaon and Solapur; pomegranate at Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Pune Nasik, Latur, Osmanabad; bananas at Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar, Buldhana, Wardha, Parbhani, Hindoli, Nanded districts; oranges: Nagpur and Amravoti;

Orissa: ginger and turmeric at Kandhamal district.

Punjab: vegetables Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Sangrur, Ropar and Ludhiana; potatos Singhpura Zirakpur in Patiala district, Rampura Phul, Muktsar, Ludhiana, Jullunder; Basmati ricein the Districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar

Rajasthan: coriander at Kota, Bundi, Baran, Jhalawar & Chittoor; cumin at Nagaur, Barmer, Jalore, Pali and Jodhpur.

Sikkim: flowers (orchids) and cherry pepper; ginger at Sikkim (north, east, south and west Sikkim).

Tripura: organic pineapple at Kumarghat, Manu, Melaghar, Matabari and Kakraban blocks

Tamil Nadu: flowers at Tamil Nadu Dharmapuri and Nilgiri districts; mangoes at Tamil Nadu's districts of Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli; cashewnut: Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Sivaganga.

Uttar Pradesh: potatos at Agra, Hathras, Farrukhabad, Kannoj, Meerut, Baghpat and Aligarh; mangoes and vegetables at Lucknow, Unnao, Hardo, Sitapur and Barabanki; mangoes at Saharanpur, Muzzfarnagar, Bijnaur, Meerut, Bhagpat and Bulandshahar; Basmati rice at Districts of Bareilly, Shahajahanpur, Pilibhit, Rampur, Badaun, Bijnor, Moradabad, J B Phulenagar, Saharanpur, Mujjafarnagar, Meerut, Bulandshahar, Ghaziabad.

Uttaranchal: lichees Udhamsingh Nagar, Dehradun and Nainital; flowers districts of Dehradun and Pantnagar; Basmati rice at districts of Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital, Dehradun and Haridwar; medicinal and aromatic plants at Districts of Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Dehradun and Nainital.

West Bengal: lichees at districts of Murshidabad Malda, 24 Pargana (north) and 24 Pargana south; potatos at Districts of Hoogly, Burdwan, West Midnapore, Uday Narayanpur and Howrah; mangos at Malda and Murshidabad; vegetablesNadia, Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas; Darjeeling tea at Darjeeling; pineapple at Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri.

The AEZs are expected to converge the efforts made, hitherto, by various central and state government departments for increasing exports of agricultural commodities from India.

These agri zones take a comprehensive view of a particular produce / product located in a geographically contiguous area for the purpose of developing and sourcing raw materials, their processing/packaging, and leading to final exports.

The government had undertaken a peer evaluation of the existing AEZs in 2005 to assess their performance. On the basis of the recommendations of the peer group in 2005, it was decided not to consider notification of new AEZs unless there were strong compelling reasons to do so.