India is eyeing to capture the world ‘millets’ market, which is set to increase exponentially due to rising demand of nutria-cereals in wake of Covid-19 pandemic, claimed the Ministry of Commerce and Industry here on Tuesday.

Presently India is the fifth largest exporter of millets in the world and were increasing at three percent rate annually during the past five years.

However, after Covid-19 pandemic the demand for nutria-cereals increased worldwide increasing the millet from USD 380 million in2019 to USD 402.7 million in 2020, the Ministry claimed.

Other major competitors of India include USA, Russia, Ukraine, China and Netherlands. The top three importers of millets from India were Nepal, UAE and Saudi Arabia, while India is continuously targeting other major importers of Middle East and Europe to increase its market presence, the Ministry said.

The Ministry said the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has also been aggressively working towards facilitating shipments of millets by Indian exporters and helping them make inroads into new markets.

Since organizing physical exhibitions and international trade fairs is not possible on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, the APEDA has developed its own Virtual Trade Fair (VTF) application to facilitate interaction among exporters, producer organizations and international buyers, the Ministry said.

Further to give impetus to the export of potential products as well as to remove the bottlenecks in the supply chain of nutria-cereals, APEDA has created the Nutri Cereals Export Promotion Forum which also included millet exports. It has also organized a sensitization programme for millet start-ups to familiarize them about export opportunities.

It has also signed an MOU with Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) for making a strategy for promotion of millets and millet value added products. It has initiated a study on ‘Refinement of Millet Value Chain for Export Markets: Preparation of export strategy in wake of International Year of Millets, 2023’ through IMMR, the Ministry said.