President’s Desk

Dear Friends,

Greetings!!!
At the outset I must convey my heartfelt and sincere gratitude for having given me a second term as President to serve you all for the coming two years.

During my first tenure I tried my best along with my team of office bearers and you all to flag every issue at appropriate levels in the Central and State Governments. These included issues that arose as a fallout of the Covid pandemic apart from matters like spiralling ocean freights, pesticide residue, Iran payment, port issues, customs issues, banking facilitation, MEIS/RoDTEP, Interest Equalization ,T Pollution bottlenecks etc. A series of meetings were held with Hon’ble Ministers , Commerce and Agriculture Secretaries, DoC, Logistics Cell,DoC and APEDA. While issues like RoDTEP and Interest Equalization have culminated
into favourable decisions, other issues will continue to be pursued.

In order to give further boost to the organization I have reconstituted the office bearers team
blending youth with experience:

1. Mr Jagdish Suri, Vice President
2. Mr Satish Goel, Vice President
3. Mr Ajay Bhalothia, Vice President
4. Mr Arvinder Pal Singh , Vice President
5. Mr Pankaj Goel, General Secretary
6. Mr Devender K Singla, Treasurer
7. Mr Manish Bansal, Joint Secretary

I have also constituted a core group comprising of senior members as Advisors to guide AIREA with their knowledge and expertise:

1. Mr Anil Mittal, KRBL
2. Mr Gurnam Arora, Kohinoor Foods Limited
3. Mr Sushil Jain, Veer Overseas Limited
4. Mr Ashwani Arora, LT Foods
5. Mr Ramneek Singh, Suppletek Industries Pvt Ltd
6. Mr Salil Bhatia, DD International Pvt Ltd.

The above team will definitely give us all great strength to forge ahead beating all challenges.

The foremost challenge before us all today is how to lift the industry from its present state of affairs to make it more forward an organization and I intend to take this as a serious task from now on.

Basmati rice exports are facing serious hindrances across the globe due to most countries now adopting EU-at-part standards of residues of pesticides. Our members have been doing their bit for the last 7-8 years but it appears the road to the ultimate journey is full of blockades and we have to strive to reach the end point in a very cohesive and cogent manner .

As for export of Basmati rice, during 2021-22 there is drop of 14.73% in Basmati rice exports vis-à-vis 2020-21 and it is setting the alarm bells ringing. But I am confident we will all be together in the race to regain the past glory of the scented pearl – Basmati rice very soon. On the other hand export of non-basmati rice has touched another high of 17.26 million tonnes during 2020-21. The speaks volumes about the since efforts made by our exporters.

With regards and best wishes.