Amid contravention of quality standards, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) markets are lowering agriculture imports from India. The governments of Saudi Arabia and UAE have informed the Indian government about the interception of higher than permissible levels of pesticide residues in agriculture commodities, particularly in vegetables such as okra and green chillies, among others. On the other hand, Indian government is stressing on the need for increasing agriculture exports. The government has been encouraging exports of agricultural produce by incentivising a part of the value of exportable goods. In fact, it aims to double India's farm exports by 2022.
Both countries contribute $1.3 billion each to India's $40-billion annual agriculture exports; out of which, products registered with the Agricultural and Produce Exports Development Authority (Apeda) account for a 50 per cent share. Apart from that, India exports a huge quantity of agriculture produce to other countries in the region, making the entire Middle East the largest destination for India's agricultural exports.
Apeda, general manager U K Vats said ‘Lots of products imported from India contravened the provisions of the food standards and safety of the Dubai Municipality. Indian exporters exporting food items to UAE are requested to apply for the regulations and provision of the food safety and standard prescribed by UAE and take constructive steps to comply with them and minimise the percentage of rejection, resulting in minimum losses and retaining India's position as the leading food exporter to the UAE’.