India's Bio Fertilizer Firms on
High
as West Stresses Organic Foods
January 2005
The Economic Times (New Delhi, India)
By Prabha Jagannathan
It could be
boom-time for Indian bio fertilizer companies from next year as they get set to
tap the huge organic fertilizer and fertilizer market in UK and the rest
of the Western world.
While one domestic
company has struck a $10 million deal with RTC, UK
(for 2005-06) for supply of liquid bio-fert in UK/Europe, others organizations
such as the Morarka Foundation have also received SGS (the internationally
renowned Finland-based certification and standards verification organization)
mark for their produce.
One reason in the
near future for the high expectations is the passage of the UK Organic food and
farming targets Act 2004.
The legislation
provides for not less than 30 percent of the agricultural area in England and Wales to be certified as organic or
in the process of being converted to organic by 2010. More crucially, it
provides for not less than 20 percent by volume of food consumed in the UK is certified
as organic.
Trade sources stress
"that is a key reason we are expecting a huge demand of our bio
fertilizers in the UK.
Currently, more than 80 percent of all organic fruits and vegetables sold in
the UK
are imported. In addition, other countries such as Italy,
Germany, France and Turkey are already pro-actively
into organic farming and foods." Some estimates peg the organic fertilizer
and foods market in Europe at $100 million by
2010.
One significant move
has already been made by International Panacea (IPL India), a bio-technology
company, which recently entered into a tie up with RTC UK (Reliance
Trading Corporation), a $100 million fertilizer trading company.
The $10-million
contract is to supply 2 lakh litres of natural High CFU count liquid bio
fertilizers for UK and Europe's organic farming and agriculture in 2005-06
alone. According to IPL India's Dr Prasad, the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau
International (CABI), UK,
has already got the approval from the UK government to provide microbial
strains.
To be used in
temperate climates in Europe, the new technology was developed by IIT, Delhi,
in collaboration with IPL and US-based NRI bio-technologist Dr Vedpal Malik to
produce liquid bio fertilizers based on naturally occurring bacteria "with
no side effects whatsoever".
The technology is
new to India although it has
been used for sometime now in countries such as Japan, contributing substantially
to higher yields per acre.
Bio fertilizer firms
also perceive a huge market within a country in the near future in the wake of
a massive organic farming initiative driven by the Centre.
Uttaranchal and Sikkim, for
instance, have declared themselves wholly organic farming states while other
north-eastern states are expected to go organic within a timeframe. The
movement is also picking up through a variety of NGOs and other organic produce
firms in states such as Himachal and even parts of Rajasthan.
International
verification, inspection, testing and certification agency (Finland-based) SGS,
which has certified the bio fertilizer produce from Panacea, also recently
recognized as organic producers farmers of the Shekawati region, where organic
farming methods were facilitated by the M R Morarka-GDC Rural Research
Foundation.
Armed with the SGS
certification, organic produce from the region is now expected to tap into
highly quality-conscious foreign markets as well The Foundation, which has
expanded its activities to 15 states to in 2000-01, is now pursuing new
collaborations in Thailand
and expects to make a breakthrough in the European market in the next few
months.
The Foundation's
focus areas include vermiculture, organic farming, R&D for biotech
application in agriculture, scientific waste management and recycling, farm
eco-tourism and value addition in agriculture and food processing.
Contends a
Foundation official, "Since we have yet to develop a standards
certification for international quality, we decided to go apply for the SGS
verification directly. The certification from SGS opens up fresh, lucrative
frontiers to farmers from the area for exporting their organic produce to
western countries including the top markets in Europe, USA and Japan."
However, trade
sources point out that a hampering factor to the big boost in domestic trade
remains the fact that there is yet no national policy on organic farming, nor
even a single licensing agency for organic produce, in consonance with
international quality certifiers.
Only the commerce
ministry has issued a notification on a program, including standards for
organic farming. And only those foods processed and packed by agencies
certified by APEDA can be considered as certified to be genuine organic
produce.
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