A team of organic marketing entrepreneurs from Italy accompanied by Mr. Tapan Ray, MD, Nature’s BioFood, New Delhi and led by Mr. Bidyut Baruah, AGM, APEDA North-East Region visited Sikkim and interacted with the officials of the Horticulture and Agriculture Department, Government of Sikkim from 08.10.2012-11.10.2012. The team from Italy consisted of Mr. Fava Caludio, Mr. Negro Christian and Mr. Biaggio of Ecor NaturaSi Spa which is the second largest entity of Europe in the field of Organic marketing. Nature’s Bio-food, is also one of the leading exporters of agricultural products from India and have 15 years of experience in exporting agricultural products to US, Europe, Middle East and other countries. They are famous with their brand name “Dawaat” basmati rice and are the largest exporter of basmati rice to Europe and US.

                Sikkim of late has gained a lot of recognition in the field of organic agriculture especially with the enterprising vision of the State Government to convert the state into a fully organic thereby becoming the first state in India to achieve this status. This initiative of the State Government has been appreciated both nationally and internationally and even came to feature in one of the episodes of the renowned “Satyamev Jayate” feature of Aamir Khan productions. Following this many national and international players in the organic field have started visiting Sikkim quite frequently to explore the business potential of the organic produces of the state.

                The team from Italy and Delhi had a very interactive discussion with the officers of the department and enquired about the potential crops for export from the state. Some the crops discussed were ginger, large cardamom, mandarin oranges, turmeric, buckwheat, traditional variety of rice, sea-buck thorn, traditional maize, etc.

                Mr. Bidyut Baruah also highlighted the various support schemes on offer from APEDA to entrepreneurs, PSUs and Government Agencies. Being a representative of the North-east region he also extended his full support for making these schemes available to Sikkim.

                After the interactions, the team went for a field visit to East Pendam and Pachak in East Sikkim to get a first-hand experience on the status of the organic farming activities at the field. The Field visit of the Italian buyers and Indian Exporter team was coordinated by Mr. Kiran Kumar Pradhan, Additional Executive Director II (SOM) Local entrepreneur Mr. Ashok Kumar and Mr. Hoshiar Singh Vashistha, in-charge IPL, (ICS Service Provider).
The team had an overview of the fields of organic paddy, ginger, urad, turmeric, mandarin and French beans. They had discussions and interactions with the organic farmers and was very much impressed with the organic activities being carried out at the field level.
During the visit they also discussed about the Internal Control System (ICS) development process for Organic Certification, on-farm composting and organic crop protection and crop management techniques. They also interacted with the ICS staff of the Service Provider of the area. They took samples of the local organic products and thanked all the stakeholders for the active interactions and cooperation during their visit to Sikkim and hoped for a long and successful collaboration.