Brussels, 02/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Mariann Fischer Boel, the commissioner for agriculture, will carry out an official visit to India from Sunday 4 - Saturday 10 March, in order to promote high-quality food products from the EU, or a “Europe with taste”. The commissioner will be accompanied by a delegation of heads of large European agro-food businesses (dairy products, cereals, fruit and vegetables, wines and meat), all determined to sign contracts with Indian companies.
Ms Fischer Boel will hold a series of bilateral talks with Indian ministers: Kamal Nath (Trade), Sharad Pawar (Agriculture), Subodh Kant Sahay (with responsibility for the processed products industry). She will also meet Indian representatives from the business world. Talks will focus on agricultural trade relations between India and the EU and the problems faced by both sides relating to rural development, against an international backdrop of the resumption of negotiations at the WTO on trade liberalisation. The commissioner will stay in New Delhi for three and a half days before finishing her visit in Mumbai.
The aim of Mariann Fischer Boel's trip is to “reinforce the trade links” between India and the EU. It is a “dual purpose” visit, her spokesperson commented on Friday 2 March: “to encourage the sales of high-quality European agricultural products on the Indian market, which has great potential for growth, and to promote investments by the European private sector in the Indian agro-food sector”.
In New Delhi on 8 March, Ms Fischer Boel will attend the opening of the largest fair for food, drink, wines and spirits in the whole of Asia, the “International Ahaar Food Fair”. The EU will have a stand at the Fair to show how EU agricultural products answer the needs of Indian consumers and marry extremely well with the culinary traditions of India, and to promote the sales of high-quality European foodstuffs in India. “The EU is India's largest commercial partner”, Ms Fischer Boel's spokesperson pointed out, going on to state that the value of bilateral trade is worth some €40 billion every year. India exports an annual 1.2 billion euros' worth of agro-food products onto the European market every year, whilst the EU exports 200 million euros' worth onto the Indian market. “It is clear to see the commercial imbalance which exists between European imports and exports” (to and from India), the same source noted. (lc)