Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) General Manager Pravin Gupta has said that insurgency was a major roadblock in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland in increasing exports of fruits from the North-eastern region.He said cold storage facilities either did not exist or those that did were extremely inadequate, and similar was the position in respect of marketing arrangements.
Gupta said out of APEDA’s total exports, North East’s share was a dismal 0.003 per cent last year, which was in marked contrast to the true potential of the region.“It has been found that a large proportion of exports from the region take place through illegal routes to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar,” he said.

Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland share a 1,643 km border with Myanmar while the international boundary shared by Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram with Bangladesh stands at 1,880 km. Gupta said to educate enterpreneurs of the region, the agency plans to launch various market development initiatives and send exporters to foreign exhibitions and fairs.Gupta said the agency will also start various quality and R&D programmes in the North- East.

At a recent NEC meeting in Guwahati, Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh had asked APEDA to initiate steps for improving exports from the region.

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