By IANS
Ahmedabad : The Indian government is trying to resume sesame seed exports to Russia, halted in May due to quality concerns, officials said.
The ice between India and Russia was broken by the Shellac and Forest Products Export Promotion Council (Shefexil) through the union commerce ministry. Russia has agreed to dispatch a team from its quality certifying agency – the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phyto-sanitary Surveillance (FSVPS) – in October to study rice, sesame seed and groundnut cultivation and their processing.
Exporters are hopeful that the issues that led to the halt in exports would be resolved during the Russian team’s visit, council sources said.
Russia had stopped exports following the discovery of mouldy flavours in a consignment that landed in a Black Sea port early this year.
To comply with Russia’s demand for quality certificates, exporters have identified two Hyderabad-based research and development institutes as quality certification agencies for sesame seed exports.
The institutes have well-equipped testing facilities at Rajkot and Gandhidham in Gujarat besides one at Mumbai. They also supervise cleansing operations, stuffing and sealing of containers.
Indian sesame seed exports are worth about Rs.7.5 billion and Russia alone buys Rs.170 million worth of sesame seeds from India.