Bihar’s Shahi Litchi exported to London

The 1st consignment of GI-tagged Shahi Litchi of the present-day period was exported to the British isles from Bihar with the ample guidance of Agricultural & Processed Food Products and solutions Export Progress Authority (Apeda) and the State agricultural department, an official assertion said on Monday.

The fruit, sourced from farmers from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, by a neighborhood company, Cira Enterprises following acquiring phytosanitary certification from a newly-established certification facility in Patna, the assertion said. The consignment, which left for the British isles by air on Monday, was imported by H&J Veg, London.

Apeda collaborated with Section of Agriculture, Bihar, along with other stakeholders for facilitating Shahi Litchi exports. Senior officers such as Apeda chairman M Angamuthu, Bihar’s Principal Secretary-Agriculture N Saravana Kumar and some others participated in the occasion to mark the situation.

For the reason that of short-shelf daily life of litchi, there is a need to have to check out export alternatives for the processed and value-included merchandise.

Shahi litchi was the fourth agricultural product to get GI certification from Bihar in 2018, following Jardalu mango, Katarni rice and Magahi paan. GI registration for Shahi Litchi is held with the Muzaffarpur-primarily based Litchi Growers Affiliation of Bihar. Muzzafarpur, Vaishali, Samastipur, Champaran, Begusarai districts and adjoining locations of Bihar have favourable climate for growing the fruit.

India is the second premier producer of litchi (Litchi chin) in the earth following China. The translucent, flavoured aril or edible flesh of the litchi is well-known as a desk fruit in India, although in China and Japan it is preferred in dried or canned sort. Bihar accounts approximately forty for each cent of India’s litchi creation.

Other big litchi-developing international locations are Thailand, Australia, South Africa, Madagascar and the United States.