Karnataka’s First of its Kind National Trade Fair – Organics & Millets 2017 successfully concluded today with business potentials worth Rs.100 crore generated for farmers. More than 45 buyers emerged with a long term business potential and 02MoU’s were signed between farmer federations and leading brands during the Trade Fair. The Trade fair was a boon for both Producers and Institutional buyers in terms of providing marketing opportunity and exposure to farmers in packing, branding, consumer behaviour, market requirement etc.In the last three days, the fair saw more than 48000 visitors and more than 11000farmer’s participation in this mega event. The initiative emerged as the largest congregation of India’s Organic community and mooted Karnataka as the Millet Capital of India.
Brief Summary of the 3-Day National Trade Fair – Organics & Millets 2017.
Inaugural Function
The programme was blessed by Shri. Sadananda Gowda, Hon. Minister for Statistics, Shri. Sompal Shastri, Former Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of India, Shri Ananth Kumar, Hon. Minister for Fertilizer and Petro Chemicals and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Minister for Agriculture, Uttaranchal, Shri. Krishna Byre Gouda, Hon. Minister for Agriculture, Government of Karnataka and various other Ministers from Government of India and Ministers from State Government, Elected members from Vidhan Sabha and also Vidhana Parishad, Business heads from various Organizations connected with organic products and millets.
In the Address by Hon. Minister for Fertilizer and Petro Chemicals and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Ananth Kumar indicated that in order to boost organic farming at the nation level, a National Mission may be formed to formulate and promote schemes related to Organic farming and Millets. By seeing the response from various State Governments and private agencies in this trade fair, he announce that a Round Table conference will be arranged with involvement of Central Government, major state governments like Karnataka, Uttaranchal and experts in the field to promote organic farming and millets across the country. He assured full support of the GoI including PMKY for further promotion of organic farming and millets.
Shri. Krishna ByreGowda, Hon. Minister for Agriculture, GOK, announced at the inaugural, that as a result of the meet, institutional buyers like Big Basket have come forward for entering in to long term buying arrangements with Farmers Federations, etc. During the function, The Organic Policy 2017, Organic Recipe Book was published in the inaugural meet.
Exhibition Area
260 stalls were occupied at the stall exhibit including 60 stalls from Karnataka pavilion.
The major companies/ sellers participated in the exhibition cover
1. Ms. Kadamba Organics, UK,
2. Diabetic Food international
3. Hasiru Foods,
4. FPOs from Karnataka
5. Uttrakhand Organic Dept. Board
6. Agricultural Universities of Karnataka
7. ADITI Org Certifying agencies
8. Mandya Organics
9. Amrut Organics
10. 24 Mantra organics
11. Sahaja Organics
12. G10 Organics
13. APEDA
14. Green Remedies
15. 18 Herbs
16. APOF Certifying Agency and
17. 14 Federations of Organic Farmers
18. MTR
19. Desi Utthana organics
20. Sresta Natural Bio-products
21. Rapid Organics
22. North East Agri Marketing Corporation
The Exhibitors were from the entire spectrum of the organic value chain covering organic producers, processors, Bulk sellers, Retailers, Equipment suppliers, Exporters and Food Outlets. The stalls were crowed with customers, buyers, sellers and public interested in organic food. All participants at the stalls expressed their satisfaction at Mela and thanked the initiatives of the State Government.
Start Ups
Honourable Minister for Agriculture, GoK, Sri Krishna Byre Gowda, Honourable Minister for IT, BT & Tourism, GoK – Mr. Priyank M Kharge Mr. KishorJagirdar, CMD of Infospace Management Pvt Ltd, Mr. Mahesh Basavanna, Co-founder Org Tree, Mr.Sai Krishna, Founder & Managing Director, Health Sutra and Mr.Lakshminarayan Srinivasaiah, co-founder Jivabhumi. Honourable minister, Mr. Priyank Kharge spoke about the Government policy of encouraging entrepreneurs and the Start-up cell of the Government, which helps in incubation and developing an idea to a proof of concept and also provides funding upto Rs 50 lakh. Mr. Krishna Byre Gowda spoke about the opportunities and potential space for rapid growth of millet start-ups and the innovative agri- start up funding. The other speakers on the panel spoke about how they started, issues in scaling up, mentoring programme of ASSOCHAM.
B2B – Buyer seller meet:
Arrangements were made to meet both the requirements of Buyer to Buyer and Seller to Buyer (producer to Buyers) at the National Trade fair. A separate exclusive meet area was organized for one to one discussions of the sellers and buyers. Representatives of the Farmers Federations got an opportunity to meet various buyers from the country. The meet was exclusively addressed by the Hon. Minister for Agriculture on 29/04/2017. He addressed both the buyers and producers separately on the issues of their interest. To minimize the cost and make the produce more attractive to the buyers, he suggested that the farmers need to be involved in primary processing packaging at farm or hobli level. He also suggested that the buyers can have /Quality Control’ facilities at the farmers level for ensuring quality packing and labelling of value added products.
Mentioned below is a synopsis of the discussions held:
Most of the buyers were insisting to supply the quality products required in the designated place and time. The buyers were also requested most of the farmers to take care of farm level primary cleaning and grading at the source. Almost all buyers agreed to give Mandi price plus 10-15% premium for organic produces, based on the quality. Few buyers were interested to share some profit post sales in order to develop long term relationship with farmer/farmer groups. Some of the corporate buyers were keen in supporting the incentives of organic federations by investing in processing facilities/ farm level processing. On other hand suppliers requested buyers to provide information on their requirements like quantity, quality, grades, etc., in advance. There were around 45 potential buyers discussed with 14 regional federations, farmers groups and individual farmers. Around 50 buyers’ sellers meeting were held in B2B during the Mela. Some of the major potential buyers are: Big Basket, Pro Nature, Dhatu, 24 Organic Mantra, Phalada Pure and Sure, Reliance Fresh, Agri India Farm, Organic Tattva, Jiva Bhumi and Nature Bio-foods. The estimated business potentials during the meet are estimated at Rs.4 Crore in short term and more than 50 Crores on long term basis. The members of farmers’ federations and FPOs expressed their satisfaction on account of this B2B meet which has created platform for both short term and long term sustained business potentials.
Customer connect Programme
A customer connect programme was also organised during 2nd day of the Mela to connect the organic producers with urban customers. Uttar Kannada and Davangere federation representatives have entered into long term supply MoU for supply of organic produces. Many such MoUs are expected to materialise with institutional buyers and farmers federations and FPOs. This connect programme was witnessed in the presence of Shri. Ramalinga Reddy, Transport Minister, GoK, Shri. Pattanayak, Secretary, Agri Co-operative and Farmers Welfare GoI, Shri. Anandi Charan Sahoo, GM, SIDBI, Shri. Soma Sekar, President organic federation high power committee, Shri.Sesha Tirumala, Shri. Vipul Mittal, CEO Big Basket, UK Federation and Davanagere Federation Presidents, Dr. David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT, MD, Brittania, (Shri. Shri Varun, Pro Nature), Future Group representatives, ITC Foods CEO – Mr Mallik, MTR Foods-Sanjay Sharma, Commissioners of Water Shed, Horticulture and Agriculture Department. During the occasion “Organic Millet Recipe Book”, “Exhibition Catalogue”, “India Organic Food Market” were released.
Farmers Workshop:
More than 1500 farmers benefited from the Framers Workshop. This workshop was exclusively organized for the benefit of the farmers who are into organic farming and for millets. The farmers’ workshop started with a Key note address of Dr. G. K. Veeresh, Former Vice Chancellor, UAS Bengaluru. In his address Dr.Veeresh explained the genesis and importance of organic farming. He also explained the farmer how to be a successful in organic cultivation. Various topics covered in the workshop covered the following
1. Millets as climate resilient crops by Dr. Villas. A. Tonapi, Director, IIMR, Hyderabad
2. Organic Farming Policy of Karnataka and its achievements by Dr. K. Ramakrishnappa, Director of Horticulture (Retd), President JKS, Bengaluru
3. Organic and millet products potentialities and market opportunities by Dr. Ravindra, DGM, APEDA, Bengaluru
4. Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) for organic and millets products by Dr. Harish Srivatsa, Head, RCOF, Panchkula, Haryana
5. Organic certification opportunities for organic producers by Dr. Narayana Upadaya, Director, Aditi Certification Ltd.,
6. Role of Bio villages in development of Organic Farming by Dr. H. B. Bablad, Professor of Agronomy, UAS, Dharwad
7. Recent developments in organic production by Dr. N. Devakumar, Coordinator & Nodal Officer, UAS
The overall feedback of the workshop was useful and satisfactory.
National Conference
More than 3000 delegates participated in the National Conference.
National conference on organic farming was organized to invite experts on various subjects from reputed organizations like ICCOA, ICAR, Agricultural universities, ICRISAT, IIMR, APEDA and major companies like Green Path, Dhatu Organics and others for knowledge sharing clearing the doubts of the organic growers.
The scientists and subject matter specialists made detailed presentation on varied subjects like sustainable rain-fed farming for millets, sustainability of organic farming systems, value chain development for millets and organic food products and potential of domestic market. Besides there were sessions on certification of organic farming and challenges in Certification as well as operations.
The speakers explained the farmers various types of certification of Organic food products and quality assurance systems.
Food Stalls & Food court
Overall response to the organic & millets 2017 was very positive. Most of the stalls registered very good sales and were highly optimistic about the Trade fair. The visitors were seen making purchases from different stalls and were happy about variety of healthy alternatives available to processed foods and chemicals laced food items available in the market.
Drawing competition, Art competition and cooking competitions were organized by the organizers to promote interest among public on the healthy aspects of millets, which was well received through mass participation.
