Indian banana sets sail for Saudi Arabia

India's banana exports crossed a new milestone Friday when a container load of the fruit bound for Jeddah left this industrial town in Gujarat's Bharuch district. About a thousand farmers, who produced the fruit on a contract basis for Desai Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd (DFV), cheered as the 18-tonne special reefer container moved out from the company's cold storage complex. The consignment is being sent as part of a multi million-dollar contract signed with Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Adallah Sharbatly Co. Ltd.'

This is in effect the 51st container which is going. The previous 50 containers were sent on a trial basis,' said P.K. Khandelwal, CEO of DFV. Bananas were till now exported through merchant exporters and this is the first time a container load is being shipped away. The company is planning to dispatch container loads of fruits to seven more countries within a month. With this, India will join Latin American countries and the Philippines in the Far East as a global supplier of bananas.

A large retailer in India has approached DFV for the supply of premium quality bananas at a good price. This will be finalised in the next two months. India is the largest producer of bananas in the world with 23 percent of the global production, which is estimated at 72.5 million tonnes a year. Brazil, China, Ecuador and Philippines are the other major producers. Export bananas are the developing world's fourth most important commodity and rank first as a commonly eaten fruit.

DFV, founded in 2001 by Ajit Desai, a Gujarat farmer, pioneered banana exports from India. With earnings of $750,000 in 2006-07, the company has become India's largest banana exporter. Desai has created India's first multi-fruit integrated infrastructure and his DFV has now become one of the largest fruit logistics firms in India and works with close to 2,500 farmers spread across 23 villages in Gujarat and 16 villages in Maharashtra. This has made DFV one of the largest contract farming exporters in India.

DFV has a model farm where a tree yields 35 kg per plant compared to the normal output of 17 kg in others. Desai said: 'DFV assures a promise of a minimum price and underwrites initial investment in seeds. Then there is a central labour bank for specific harvesting and post-harvesting of banana cultivation. Any of our contract farmers can ask for skilled labour from this bank.'

Apart from assured income, the Desai farm-certified farmers are getting a taste of hi-tech and best practices. Desai has converted migrating tribal villagers in Surat district to farmers producing fruits and vegetables. He offers cold-chain logistics at the grass root level in various villages.

The company operates at international best practice benchmarks and has cultivated for itself a good customer base including supermarkets as well as leading importers, distributors in Europe, the US, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. DFV's 2007 turnover was close to $8 million. The company's equity holding is in the nature of 80:20. While 80 percent is owned by Contract Farming India, a firm based in Zug, Switzerland, Desai owns 20 percent.

Malaysian Agriculture Office In Dubai To Boost Agro Product Exports

The Malaysian Agriculture Office in Dubai is conducting market studies and meeting interested parties with a view to increasing the export volume of Malaysia's agro-based products to the emirate and beyond. Agriculture Counsellor Abdul Razak Ahmad said among the areas to be looked into include demand and supply factors as well as pricing to make such products more competitive. "What I've observed is that there are many agro-based products from countries like Thailand and the Philippines in Dubai. And Malaysia too would like to make its presence felt here," he told Bernama.

He said the office would serve as a matchmaker between Malaysian companies and those in the UAE intending to do business in the agricultural sector together. The Dubai office is part of a chain of bureaus opened by the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry in an effort to promote Malaysian agro-based products abroad. The rest are located in the Netherlands, China, Thailand, Japan, Australia and United States. Abdul Razak said that Malaysian papayas and jackfruits were available in Dubai albeit in small quantities.

He said he was in the process of meeting local companies already importing agro-based products from Malaysia to encourage them to increase the volume. Being a big producer of pineapples, he said, Malaysia should also be looking at exporting the fruit to this part of the world. "We also have fruits like guava, dragon fruit and star fruit that could be marketed here," he said, adding that seasonal fruits were also an option. Abdul Razak noted that Malaysia exported fruits in large quantities to places like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and parts of Europe.

He said he had met senior United Arab Emirates agriculture officials who expressed support over the setting up of the agriculture office in Dubai. "Being a wealthy country, UAE and Dubai can buy anything from all the four corners of the world," he added.

Rice cartel to benefit regional, global food security

An organization of rice exporting countries (OREC) will help make regional and global food price more stable in the future, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday at a university graduation ceremony.
Unlike the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), OREC would contribute to ensuring food price stability not just in individual countries, but to addressing the problem of food shortage in the region and the world, he said.
OREC won't hoard rice to raise prices when there is shortage, so people shouldn't be worried about the creation of OREC, he said.
Meanwhile, he clarified that he himself was the original creator of the OREC concept, as he first mentioned it in 2005 during a meeting of the OREC countries, namely Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.
After all, Cambodia has two million tons of rice for export each year, while Thailand has 9.5 million tons, he added.
On April 30, in response to ever spiraling rice price, Thailand highlighted the idea to establish OREC, which quickly resulted in widespread mixed reactions.
Cambodia surely appeared positive. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Chan Sarun told a rural products exhibition in southern province of Takeo on Sunday that OREC aims for common price of rice in order to enhance their capability of rice production, help settle the world food crisis and increase incomes for their farmers.
During a meeting in Indonesia on Sunday, the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) countries, including OREC themselves, agreed for cooperation to stabilize rice price.
However, on the same day during a meeting in Spain, Asian Development Bank's senior officials clearly opposed establishment of the OREC, citing that it contradicted the free spirit of market economy and would bring about disadvantages to both sellers and purchasers.
According to earlier reports, the OREC are now planning to meet as soon as possible to materialize the concept.
The rice exports of Thailand and Vietnam used to account for some 40 percent of the world's total annual export of rice. If Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are also included, the percentage will rise over 50 percent.
Rice price has been spiraling since 2008 and high-quality rice currently sells some 1,000 US dollars a ton.