Bhubaneswar, Feb. 24: Odisha has a huge scope for export of agricultural products as the state had the capability to grow anything, Dr. S.S.Dey, Managing Director of the state-owned Agricultural Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (APICOL) said here.
“As the state has ten agro-climatic zones, almost any agricultural venture can be taken up here including coffee,” Dr. Dey said while speaking at a management development program on “Opportunities in Export Business” organized at the SOA University on Wednesday.
Dr. Dey said the potential agro products which could be exported from Odisha included groundnuts, cashew nuts, onion, sweet potato, chilli, okra, turmeric, tamarind, ginger and non-basmati rice.
The program was organized by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Odisha chapter, in association with the Institute of Business and Computer Studies (IBCS), faculty of management sciences of SOA University which was attended by exporters and those looking for opportunities to get into the export business.
Stating that the coming up of the Dhamra and Gopalpur ports would further expand export opportunities from Odisha, Dr. Dey gave details about the facilities and the support APICOL extended to the exporters.
Mr. R.K.Mohapatra, chapter head , FIEO, said that the state government was now encouraging exporters with incentives and the establishment of the cargo terminal at the Biju Patnaik International Airport had come as a huge boost to export. However, 80 per cent of the exporters were unaware about the various schemes formulated by the government to help them, he said.
Mr. S.K.Sahoo, Director in-charge of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME), Directorate of Industries, Cuttack, Mr. C.R.Mishra, EXIM expert, Mr. U.L.N.Chinulu, Branch Manager, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd and Prof. Anup Samantaray, Dean, IBCS addressed the participants.
Mr. S.N.Panda, Managing Director of Bharat Masala, which has grown into a multinational company within a span of 26 years, narrated his experience as to how the family enterprise from an Odisha village could export its products today to eight countries including China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
The program was coordinated by Dr. D. Jena, Ms. Rita Prusty and Ms. Sasmita Patnaik, faculty members of IBCS.
(Source: SOA University)
