NCEL and APEDA Sign MoU to Boost Cooperative-Led Agricultural Exports
Aligning NCEL’s network with APEDA’s export facilitation will enhance value realisation for farmers, strengthen rural livelihoods, and reinforce India’s position in international markets.
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National Co-operative Exports Limited (NCEL) and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to forge a strategic partnership aimed at elevating India’s cooperative-led agricultural exports. The MoU, signed in the presence of Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, underscores the Government’s commitment to synergising the strengths of the Ministry of Cooperation and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Abhishek Dev, Chairman, APEDA, and Unupom Kausik, Managing Director, NCEL, signed the MoU on behalf of their organisations.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Ashish Kumar Bhutani said that aligning NCEL’s network with APEDA’s export facilitation will enhance value realisation for farmers, strengthen rural livelihoods, and boost India’s position in international markets, in line with the objectives of the newly launched National Cooperation Policy. He added that the Ministry is working to empower cooperative institutions to compete globally. NCEL and APEDA will jointly focus on capacity building and training, quality compliance for exports, infrastructure support and revival, participation in international trade fairs, global branding and market positioning, market intelligence and data analytics, and commodity-specific export strategy formulation.
Through this MoU, cooperative societies will gain insights into global quality standards, food safety, and export documentation via structured training programmes and workshops. APEDA’s export facilitation efforts will be integrated with NCEL’s outreach network to streamline compliance for fruits, vegetables, spices, processed foods, cereals, and animal products.
Pankaj Kumar Bansal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Cooperation, said that the MoU will empower NCEL with APEDA’s technical expertise and policy support, enabling its members to achieve export excellence, access new markets, and secure premium value for their produce.
The MoU marks a significant step towards building a resilient and competitive cooperative export ecosystem. By combining APEDA’s infrastructure and market-access capabilities with NCEL’s extensive network, the partnership will deliver tangible economic benefits to farmer-members, expand India’s export portfolio, and reinforce the cooperative movement’s contribution to national growth.
By leveraging NCEL’s role as the national umbrella organisation for cooperative exports and APEDA’s mandate for market development and export promotion, the partnership will drive export readiness, branding, infrastructure expansion, and capacity building across India’s cooperative sector.
