The first ever Indo-African agribusiness summit concluded here on Saturday. During the summit business delegation of African and their Indian counterparts explored possibility of enhancing business in agro processing and agro machinery sector.
Trade delegations of various countries of Africa participated in the First Indo-Africa Agribusiness Summit held here at Brilliant Convention Center. The summit, organised by Indo-Global SME Chamber, was started on June 18 and concluded on Saturday.
The main purpose of the summit was to help the traders and exporters of agricultural and irrigation equipment from India with the traders and industrialists from African countries, and promote the export of agricultural equipment from India. Additionally, African industrialists express desire in setting up pulses and oil mill and other food processing industries in Africa. Manufacturers and exporters of agricultural equipment, pumps, pipes, tractors, etc. from various parts of India were also were in Indore to participate in this summit.
The conference was inaugurated by MLA Manoj Patel. He said he and his government is very happy to see this initiative and such initiative will boost the export potential of the state, He said Indian agriculture is getting recognition in the world and such initiatives promote the cooperation between the two countries.
As a part of the summit, from 19th to 21st of June, the delegation also participated in a three-day training program organised by the chamber with Acropolis Faculty of Management and Research. The training provided detailed information to the African guests about India’s agricultural industry.
Principal of the institute Dr Manish Mittal told in a press conference that during this workshop, the faculty members of his institute explained the details of various aspects of the agribusiness, through discussions and lectures. This training was organized by the support of International Trade Center’s Supporting Indian Trade and Investment for Africa (SITA) and DFID (UK) has been an important contributor.
Certificates to the participating African delegates were handed over by Usha Thakur, MLA Indore. On this occasion, she said she felt very happy to see the African industrialists learn from India and stressed the importance of organic farming.
Chamber chairman Dr Bharat Kulkarni said that during two-day international conference and B2B meeting that was organised at the Brilliant Convention Center, MoU for technology and machine export were discussed to the tune of Rs 70 crore. Businessmen from across the country participated in this conference ad negotiated business deals. In addition, agreements to supply organic fertilizers and pesticides to the African farmers were also done. During the summit, Indian and the African agencies agreed to work on introducing the modern seeds for soybeans and pulses in Africa.
He further said that he was very happy to come to Indore. And their friends learned a lot here and they want to take full advantage of the opportunity to meet and trade with India’s businessmen.
Vice president of chamber, Dr Neeraj Vijayvargiya said that traders are expected to have several contracts during this conference. He said the chamber is planning to take a delegation to Africa next month and this will further strengthen the business relations and export potential.
The summit also saw the signing of an MoUs between EAGC Africa and Acropolis Faculty of Management and Research in the area of capacity building and trainings. Next month onwards the work on this MOU will begin.
