Agri Export Zones - Conceptual Study

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Setting up of AEZ is a very important step towards providing state of art infrastructure for the export of agricultural production. AEZ's take product specific, approach for identifying potential products in the clusters for exports. AEZ's takes care of total supply chain of identified product from sourcing of desired quality raw material to final export.
There are various difficulties encountered at each stage in the process of sourcing to final export. Some of the major difficulties encountered are given below.
 Availability of good quality produce/product in the required quantity.
 Wastage due to lack of proper packaging.
 Lack of market information, both supply side and demand side.
 Inability of local players to meet international quality standards.
 Unavailability of credit at right time at reasonable rate of interest.
 Unavailability of proper storage and transportation facilities.

In addition there are many procedural difficulties due to presence of many food and agro related laws.
AEZ's try to solve all these difficulties by integrating various institutions involved in trade, legislation and for support.

The two basic principles which are at the center of concept of AEZ are;

Identification of Potential product for export in a particular geographical area.
The good quality products which are having bulk production in a particular geographical area are identified. Example in Karnataka AEZ is established in the regions where Gherkins are available in quantity. Similarly AEZ are set in Uttaranchal for flowers, in Maharashtra for grapes and in UP for Mangoes.

Research and development to produce internationally competitive products.
Special emphasis is given for R&D at each level from sourcing to export. Soil research and farm development for production of high quality raw material; Innovation in packaging materials to increase shelf life; development or procurement of proper technology for processing and marketing research are some important areas of research.