Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) with support of the Embassy of India, Brussels will take a 10-member delegation of exporters/manufacturers of specialty organic food to participate in the 18th edition of BioXpo scheduled to be held at Brussels Expo on 13-14 October, 2019.
This is the only B2B Expo on Bio, Organic and Natural products in Belgium covering major EU buyers. In 2017 it had roughly 2,500 professional trade visitors and 150 exhibitors. There is a large scope for the business expansion for Indian bio/natural/organic food and products in Bio Xpo. This programme offers an excellent opportunity for Indian manufacturers and exporters of these products to establish direct business contact with top Belgian and EU importers of organic food products.
The Government of India’s NPOP (National Programme for Organic Production) standards for production and accreditation system have been recognized by European Commission and Switzerland for unprocessed plant products as equivalent to their country standards that makes Indian organic products acceptable in the region. As per FiBL and IFOAM Report OF 2019, India has largest number of producers (835,000) of organic foods with 1.8 million hectare of organic land. India produced around 1.70 million MT (2017-18) of certified organic products which includes oilseeds, tea, coffee, cereals, spices etc (APEDA). During 2017-18 the organic food export realization was around US$ 515.44 million to markets including USA, European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, Japan etc. (APEDA). Of the US$ 57 billion worth exports to EU in 2018, nearly US$ 2.3 billion of the products pertained to vegetables, fruits, cereals, spices, tea, coffee, oil seeds etc. The organic food market of EU is worth about € 30.7 billion per year, but the region uses only 7% of its agricultural land for production of organic foods. The gap between production and demand is filled with the help of imports, indicating that potential for exports to EU in organic food is considerable.
