The Central government has prepared a comprehensive strategy to promote the exports of Indian millets across the globe from December 2022.

The millets export promotion programme follows the Indian proposal at the UN General Assembly that was supported by 72 countries which led to the world body declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYoM).

The government is currently organising IYoM-2023 at the domestic and international levels to popularise Indian millets as well as its value-added products across the world and make it a people’s movement.

For the promotion of exports of Indian millets, the Centre has planned to facilitate the participation of exporters, farmers and traders in 16 international trade expos and Buyer Seller Meets (BSMs).

As per the government’s robust strategy to promote millets, Indian missions abroad would be roped in for branding and publicity of Indian millets, identification of international chefs as well as potential buyers such as departmental stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets for organising B2B meetings and direct tie-ups.

In addition, ambassadors of foreign missions in India of the targeted countries and potential importers would also be invited to see various millet-based products including ready to eat millet products and facilitate B2B meetings.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has planned to organise millet promotional activities in South Africa, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Sydney, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States by facilitating the participation of different stakeholders from India in some of the significant food shows, Buyer Seller Meets and Road Shows.

As part of the promotion of Indian millets, APEDA has planned to showcase millets and its value-added product at various global platforms such as Gulfood 2023, Foodex, Seoul Food & Hotel Show, Saudi Agro Food, Fine Food Show in Sydney (Australia), Belgium’s Food & Beverages Show, Germany’s BioFach and Anuga Food Fair, San Francisco’s Winter Fancy Food Show, etc.

India is one of the leading producers of millet in the world with an estimated share of around 41 per cent in global production. As per FAO, the world production of millets in the year 2020 was 30.464 million metric tonnes (MMT) and India’s share was 12.49 MMT, accounting for 41 per cent of the total millet production.