Kargil: In a historical event, CEC Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil, Feroz Ahmad Khan and Deputy Commissioner Santosh Sukhadeve, flagged-off the first ever International Export Of Ladakhi Apricot To Dubai from TFC Kargil.
After Ladakh became Union Territory, this event marked an important milestone for Kargil, since now Krishak Agritech has taken the fruit not only to the Indian market but also to the international market, with their first order of 150 kg from Dubai.
Paving the way for local entrepreneurs to participate in the value chain of Apricot, this initiative would also ensure that the farmers of Kargil benefit from reduced wastage and receive an immediate realization of the value of their crop.
Apricot is the primary cash crop for the farmers of Kargil and had never been exported out of Ladakh, except for this year. Krishak Agritech, a farmer centric organisation that is working with farmers across the Himalayan states undertook this mammoth task to find way to export and markets for fresh Ladakhi apricots.
CEC LAHDC Kargil, in his remarks highlighted that the export of Ladakhi Fresh apricot outside Ladakh was banned since 1986 under the flimsy pretext of coddling moth. Since then, the issue was voiced at every possible platform but instead of finding the solution to the highlighted problem, the then Jammu & Kashmir government continued the ban.
He further mentioned that this event marks an important milestone for Kargil, since now Krishak Agritech has taken the fruit not only to Indian market but also to the international market, with their first order of 150 kg from Dubai.
Paving the way for local entrepreneurs to participate in the value chain of Apricot, this initiative would also ensure that the famers of Kargil benefit from reduced wastage and receive and immediate realisation of the value of their crop. Apricot has recently been identified as the primary crop for Kargil under ODOC programme of the Government of India. CEC also thanked Krishak Agritech for this endeavour and assured all support to take this journey further and make this initiative a success.
Deputy Commissioner Kargil appreciated the maiden efforts undertaken by Krishak Agritech through their innovative, sustainable and scalable intervention. He also appreciated that instead of coming up with a problem, Krishak Agritech came up with a solution through understanding the possibility of export of Ladakhi apricots in all its dimension – technology deployment, establishing logistics connect and finding markets, all this while keeping a strong farmer connect.
He further emphasised that exporting apricots is a strategic priority for Kargil/Ladakh to contribute to the economy of the UT in its full potential.
Naveen Gahlawat Founder Krishak Agritech, informed that so far the organisation has exported 20 MT of fresh apricots procured from more than 200 farmers of UT of Ladakh, of value of INR 30 Lac to the farmers in addition to generating over 600 man-days of direct employment. The fruit has reached to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Delhi/ NCR markets.
While they continue to explore the domestic market(s), the support from all the stakeholders involved has been their pillar of motivation. He introduced Ghulam Mustafa, Kacho Mehboob Ali Khan and Mohd. Javed , the entrepreneurs from Kargil and local partners of Krishak Agritech, who helped the organisation to successfully complete the novel task for this season.
Exuberating over the feedback received from customers across the country, he shared that today they have secured their first order to send out Ladakhi Apricots to international market – Dubai. It comes with the help of Department of Industries and Commerce, UT of Ladakh through APEDA. He expressed his gratitude to one and all who have helped the organisation to bring this initiative to fruition. As a part of Krishak Agritech’s commitment towards creating value for the farmers of Ladakh, with future innovations and interventions, he informed that Krishak Agritech has a plan to set up food processing unit before next season of apricot.
