For the first time, commercial consignment of millets from Odisha has reached the international market. It was sourced from women-managed farmer producer organisations (FPOs) Shaktimayee Ward Mission Shakti Mahasangha to export it to Dubai.
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has facilitated the shipment of this maiden consignment of around 1 tonne of whole and flour of millet.
Pradeep Kumar Jena, agriculture production commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary, had flagged off the vehicle loading millets on Tuesday.
A Kolkata-based exporter took the initiative to send the consignment from Odisha to Dubai-based importer. Official sources said many more such shipments will be planned in the coming days. APEDA will provide all sorts of market linkages to develop the export, said an officer.
Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday tweeted that the UAE got a taste of healthy millets exported from Odisha.
Arabinda Kumar Padhee, principal secretary, agriculture and farmers’ empowerment department, on Saturday said they will do their best to take Odisha millets to millions.
“Now the whole world will taste Odisha’s ragi (finger millet). Many thanks to APEDA for their support in facilitating the export of first consignment through Mission Shakti women SHGs. Odisha Millet Mission looks forward to taking the taste of Odisha millets to global markets,” said Padhee.
The consignment has 600 kgs of whole millet and 375 kgs of flour of different millets. It has Kodo millet rice, Little Millet rice, Ragi grain, Sorghum grain, foxtail millet rice, Bajra (pearl millet) grain along with flour of these six millets.
A government official said quality and the packaging should be improved to meet more numbers of shipments. “State should explore ways to export the products through their own ports to avoid dependency on other states and ports. This will save the inland transportation costs too,” said the official.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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