Overview of first India International Cooperative Trade Fair (IICTF) 2019 held in New Delhi

3 days long first India International CooperativeTrade Fair (IICTF) 2019 was held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi from October 11-13, 2019. The fair was organised by National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), in association with Bangkok (Thailand) based Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives (NEDAC), and the ministries of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, External Affairs, Commerce & Industry.The IICTF was conducted with the aim of doubling farmers’ income by promoting cooperative-to-cooperative trade within India & abroad as 94% of farmers in India are members of at-least one cooperative institution.

75 MoU and 9 sessions

• At the last day of IICTF75 Memorandum of Understandings(MoU) were signed. 9 Thematic sessions related to cooperative business were held on Globalization of Cooperative Trade, Cooperative Banking and Financial Inclusion, Empowerment of Youth and Women through Cooperatives, Agro-processing Ecosystem through Cooperatives, Agri-Tech and Climate Smart Agriculture through cooperatives, Cooperatives as Cost-Effective and Efficient Service providers, Big Data and Cyber Security in Cooperative Sector, Dairy Cooperative Opportunities for Value Addition and Trade and Farm Mechanisation and Inputs Supply- Role of Cooperatives on all the three days of the fair.

Rs 100 crore Yuva Sahakar scheme launched for cooperatives 

• Union Agriculture minister shri Narendra Singh Tomar, launched Yuva Sahakar-Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme 2019 with an annual outlay of Rs 100 crore.
• Aim:This scheme which is in line with programmes like Start-up India and Stand-up India, is aimed at promoting young entrepreneurs and also aims especially at cooperatives in the north-east region, cooperatives in NITI(National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog’s aspirational districts, and cooperatives with 100% SC/ST(Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe) and person with disabilities.

India and SriLanka sign MoI on milk products

• At the inauguration of IICTF, India, the largest milk producer in the world signed a total of 3 Memorandum of Interest (MoI) with Sri Lanka(SL) for the supply of milk and milk products.
• Separate pact with SL:  A separate pact was signed with SL by The Tamil Nadu milk cooperative federation which owns ‘Aavin’ brand, Puducherry milk cooperative federation which owns ‘PonLait’ brand and fertiliser company Indian Potash Ltd for milk supply.
• During the meet, it was also announced that India is expected to produce 175 billion litres of milk this year which would be twice the production of United States(US), which is the second-largest milk producer in the world.

Participation in the (IICTF)

• Nationally and internationally, more than 120 Indian cooperatives and 20 organizations from Centre / State / UTs and 35countries from six continents participated in IICTF. International organisations from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, Brazil, China, Fiji, Germany, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, US, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates(UAE) and Vietnam showcased their products.
• During the fair inaugural, SahakarBharati, the single largest organisation focusing to enlighten the masses about the benefit of cooperative movement showcased and launched ‘Simplydesi’ brand.

Focus areas of IICTF: 

• The key focus areas of the IICTF were agriculture, commodities, processing, packaging, Information Technology(IT), handloom, handicrafts, textile etc.
• IICTF also focuses to promote exports of Indian cooperative produce and is packed with exhibitions, Business to business (B2B)/Customer to customer(C2C) meetings, conferences, cultural programmes etc.

Piyush Goyal addressed the closing ceremony

• During the closing ceremony of the fair, Commerce & Industry and Railway minister Shri PiyushGoyal, addressed the gathering. It was on October 13th, Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, popularly known as Sardar Patel, laid the foundation of the cooperative movement.

Agriculture Exports Policy 2018

• According to the report on Agriculture Exports Policy 2018, The cooperative sector is expected to increase the agriculture exports from the present US $30 billion+ to US$ 60 billion+ by 2022.
• Other reports: Currently 1 billion people globally are members of a cooperative with more than 12% of humanity being part of any of the 3 million cooperatives in the world. Financial cooperatives serve 13% of the world population. Agricultural cooperatives produce 50% of global agriculture output.

About New Delhi:
Chief Minister(CM)- Arvind Kejriwal.
Deputy Chief Minister(CM)- Manish Sisodia.
Governor- Anil Baijal.