Agartala, Jan 24 (PTI) DoNER Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Saturday predicted that Tripura’s agarwood-based economy will touch Rs 2,000 crore annually in the years to come, driven by policy support and infrastructure development.
Currently, agarwood trade volume in the northeastern state is around Rs 100 crore annually.
Addressing a function after laying the foundation stone for an Rs 80-crore agarwood cluster development project at Fulbari in North district, Scindia said the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) ministry has been working to remove the bottlenecks affecting agarwood trade.
“The first problem, capping on export of agarwood products, has been addressed in a realistic way. The upper limit for export of agarwood chips has been increased from 25,000 to 1.50 lakh for the state and the upper cap of exporting agarwood oil has also been enhanced from 1,500 kg to 75,000 kg. It means two major barriers have already been broken for the growth of agarwood trade”, he said.
Scindia also said the DoNER is trying to digitise the process of various approvals which are needed for export of agarwood-based products.
“Agarwood traders require several approvals to export their products, but the DoNER is working to simplify the whole process by introducing a digital process”, he said.
Scindia assured that agarwood traders will also be allowed to visit foreign nations with their products to show samples to potential buyers.
Currently, the customs department does not allow traders to carry agarwood products as samples.
Emphasising the need for quality production, Scindia said the DoNER is working towards obtaining Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification and Geographical Indication (GI) tags for agarwood-based products to promote them in global markets.
Asserting that he has been working to understand the cycle of agarwood trade for the past one-and-a-half years, the DoNER minister said he has come here as an emissary of Modi with his message of growth and development.
Scindia also said he had discussion with Chief Minister Manik Saha over the possibility of agarwood trade on Friday.
“I had a discussion with the CM last night. We underlined the need to plant 25 lakh agarwood trees across the state over the next two or three years so that raw materials don’t fall short”, he said.
Currently, the northeastern state has 1.50 lakh agarwood trees which are mostly concentrated in North and Unakoti districts. PTI PS MNB
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