January 17, 2008

Italy keen on importing milk, wheat from India

Italy's Ministry of Agriculture announced to import milk and wheat from Italy, despite a ban on Indian dairy products in EU.

Agriculture minister, Paolo De Castro, confirmed Italy's intention after signing a pact with India for setting up five agro food parks and joint testing laboratories.

India's agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who was present during the inking of the pact, said he also urge Italy to allow import of milk products from India as the EC team, which visited India to evaluate controls on veterinay medicinal products, was satisfied with the facilities in his country.

Pawar suggested to export marine products, dairy and poultry meat to Italy.

Despite a stronger trade agreement between the two countries, India is still facing some problems with Italy, the minister said.

Marine products exported from India still face rejection at Italian ports. The exporters of these products have complained that the inspection procedure, including testing and sampling methods are not in accordance with EC guidelines.

There were also complaints that authorities routinely reject the whole consignments even if a compartmentalized portion of the consignment is found defective, Pawar expressed.

Meanwhile, India is set on importing food processing products, agricultural machineries and post-harvesting technologies from Italy.

India's trade with Italy has surged by 43 percent to 6.3 billion dollar during 2006-07 compared to last year.