Latest News | Australia, India Review Cooperation in Farm Sector

New Delhi, Jun 1 (PTI) Australia on Tuesday assured to expedite India's request for providing market access to okra and pomegranate arils.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and David Littleproud MP, Australian Minister for Agriculture, Drought & Emergency Management, held a virtual meeting to review bilateral cooperation in the field of farm sector, an official statement said.

The two ministers met to follow up on the collaboration in field of agriculture highlighted in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership announced by Prime Ministers of India and Australia at their Summit on June 4, 2020.

The partnership aims to use Australia's expertise in post-harvest management.

Tomar expressed satisfaction at the progress being made in this area of cooperation between the two countries.

He informed that the National Institute of Agricultural Marketing will be the nodal organisation from India.

"Both the Ministers expressed satisfaction on the progress of giving Market access to the respective Agricultural products and shared technical information with each other," the statement said.

Australia has recently given market access for export of Indian pomegranates.

There would be a joint strategy for deeper access for Indian mangoes and pomegranates in Australian markets led by the Indian High Commission in Canberra also.

"The Australian Minister assured to fast track the Indian requests for market access for okra and pomegranate arils," the statement said.

On the issue of closer cooperation between India and Australia in multilateral fora like FAO and G20, Tomar said that he looked forward for closer dialogue between like minded countries.

Tomar suggested that India and Australia can work together on the issue of climate change.

He mentioned the flagship program of National Innovation for Climate Resilient Agriculture and said that collaboration could be set up with the research organisations of Australia.

During the meeting, it was acknowledged that the frequent engagement between the two nations at the highest level has resulted in significant progress in many spheres of the bilateral relations during the last five years, the statement said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)