One district one product: Simplified for Indian exporters
Under its Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan, the Government of India focuses on making India self-reliant. The much-acclaimed ODOP initiative, a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat plan, has come to light recently as they announced 6 out of 10 brands of products from the ODOP scheme.
The ODOP scheme was introduced in 2020 to boost traditionally produced perishable indigenous products, promote them, and export them. The aim is to foster balanced regional development, enable holistic socio-economic growth, boost exports, and encourage investment. Another intention was to generate more employment opportunities all over the nation, create an environment that promotes success and encourage local producers to go global.
The Japanese business development concept that gained popularity in 1979 was an inspiration for the ODOP scheme. The idea was to identify, focus and support one product from each region to boost the local economy and raise the standard of living.
Under the scheme, the government identified and picked some food products and other traditional and waste to wealth products from various districts of the 35 states. Some of these products are mango, litchi, tomato, tapioca, millet-based products, fisheries, poultry, meat, animal feed, and traditional Indian herbal edible products like amla and haldi. These products will benefit from product development, shelf-life enhancement, and sales improvement using branding and marketing. The other types of support that they will receive will include help reducing wastage, proper assaying, storage, and marketing.
In the previous month, the government announced a list of 6 brands of products under the ODOP scheme.
1. Amrit Phal
A brand for amla juice for good taste and good health (Gurugam, Haryana)
2. Cori Gold
A brand for coriander powder from Kota, Rajasthan
3. Kashmiri Mantra
A brand or spices from Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir
4. Madhu Mantra
A brand for honey from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh
5. Somdana
A brand for millets from Thane, Maharashtra
6. Whole wheat cookies of Dilli Bakes
Second product under the brand name Dilli Bakes from Delhi These are among the ten brands that signed up with NAFED for marketing and branding. They seem to be promising in terms of the uniqueness of the product, its properties and health benefits. The state of the food export industry
The markets for processed food startups are booming in the nation. More and more startups are coming up with innovative ways of doing business, and some are excelling.
For example, Grofers, Licious and Rebel Foods made it to the list of unicorns last year.
Startups like these will boost the economy and the entire value chain and have become classic examples of pushing traditional industries like agriculture forward with technology. Although India has not been on the top list of processed food exporters so far, schemes like these will encourage more and more local food businesses to go global, despite supply chain hurdles and troubles associated with the limited shelf life.
Why should your organization switch to tax automation?
India has a strong food industry because of its rooting in agriculture. While more and more businesses are entering the markets, the local market for processed food products is undying. However, limited shelf life and lack of technology discourage many agriculture-dependent products from growing global.
The government’s support through this scheme will help many businesses get into and compete in the global markets. But along with support in branding, marketing and enhancement of shelf life, what today’s organizations need is a software solution that can take care of the global indirect tax compliance to speed up the process and ensure timely delivery of products.
Taxes are an integral and unavoidable part of any business, and while sellers try to take care of compliance on their own, it requires you to master them. The tax responsibilities leave you with less time for other priorities. Now a days many businesses are taking up digital transformation. Letting software solutions help businesses by providing them with an accurate, up-to-date, timesaving and cost-friendly alternative that takes care of their indirect taxes so that the organizations can focus on doing what they love.
International taxation is a complex and dynamic game, and if a business is playing it, they better know all the rules and regulations well. The coming times will be full of surprises, opportunities, and tax challenges. Tax experts are forecasting troubles in blind spots. Therefore, more and more food export businesses should take up tax automation as it will allow them to estimate landed costs in real-time, speeding up the process, especially because of the limited shelf life of the products.
Author: Sainath Gandewar, Sr. Director Finance, Avalara India.
Publication: The Times of India.
