What is APEDA and which ministry runs it?

APEDA — the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority — is a statutory autonomous body of the Government of India, constituted under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985 (Act 2 of 1986). It became operational in February 1986 and functions under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry — not the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. APEDA is headquartered at the NCUI Building, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi. Its mandate is to promote the export of scheduled agricultural and processed food products by providing financial assistance, developing infrastructure, prescribing standards and specifications, undertaking market development, and running product traceability and registration systems for exporters.

Which product groups fall under APEDA's mandate?

The First Schedule of the APEDA Act specifies fourteen product groups. These are: (1) fruits, vegetables and their products; (2) meat and meat products; (3) poultry and poultry products; (4) dairy products; (5) confectionery, biscuits and bakery products; (6) honey, jaggery and sugar products; (7) cocoa and its products, and all kinds of chocolates; (8) alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages; (9) cereal and cereal products; (10) groundnuts, peanuts and walnuts; (11) pickles, papads and chutneys; (12) guar gum; (13) floriculture and floriculture products; and (14) herbal and medicinal plants. Under a separate notification Basmati rice is placed exclusively under APEDA's ambit, which is why every commercial Basmati export consignment moves through APEDA's Basmati registration and export protocol.

What is the Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC) and who needs it?

The Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC) is the single most important compliance credential for any exporter dealing in APEDA-scheduled products. Any person or firm exporting scheduled products from India must register as an exporter with APEDA and hold a valid RCMC. Applications are filed online through the APEDA portal at apeda.gov.in with the Import Export Code (IEC) issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), a self-attested bank certificate, PAN and the applicant's constitution documents. The RCMC is issued for a five-year block and must be renewed thereafter. It is a pre-requisite for claiming any of APEDA's financial-assistance sub-schemes and for participating in APEDA-organised Buyer-Seller Meets, exhibitions and international trade fairs.

What are APEDA's financial-assistance schemes?

APEDA administers its export-promotion assistance through four principal sub-schemes under the Agriculture Export Promotion umbrella. Market Development assistance covers exporter participation in international trade fairs, Buyer-Seller Meets and reverse Buyer-Seller Meets, product brochures, and international brand promotion. Infrastructure Development supports post-harvest handling — integrated pack-houses, pre-cooling units, cold storage, reefer transport, mechanised handling equipment and specialised agri-export infrastructure. Quality Development supports installation of quality management, food safety and residue-testing systems, HACCP / ISO / BRC / GlobalG.A.P. certifications, laboratory equipment and residue-monitoring plan participation. Transport Assistance provides freight support for the export of eligible scheduled products by air and sea (including reefer container hire) from notified surplus clusters to overseas markets, subject to ceilings notified in the operational guidelines. All four are claimed against the RCMC on the APEDA portal.

What is the Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)?

The Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) was set up by APEDA at Modipuram, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) as a not-for-profit trust to support and promote Basmati rice exports. BEDF undertakes DNA-based purity testing of Basmati rice varieties, maintains varietal reference libraries, works with ICAR-IARI and State Agricultural Universities on Basmati varietal improvement, runs residue-monitoring plans for pesticide compliance with importing countries, and organises grower and exporter training. Because Basmati is the single-largest agricultural export item by value from India and enjoys a Geographical Indication (GI) tag covering the traditional Basmati-growing tracts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, BEDF also plays a role in Basmati GI protection in overseas markets.

How do FPOs, processors and exporters engage with APEDA?

The engagement path depends on the entity. An exporter — proprietor, partnership firm, company, LLP, Farmer Producer Organisation or co-operative — first obtains an IEC from DGFT, then registers on apeda.gov.in and applies for the RCMC. Once registered, the exporter can subscribe to APEDA's traceability platform relevant to the commodity (GrapeNet / HortiNet / AnarNet / PeanutNet / MeatNet), participate in APEDA-organised Buyer-Seller Meets and international exhibitions, and file claims under the four financial-assistance sub-schemes. FPOs producing scheduled commodities engage either as exporters in their own right or as suppliers to registered exporters — APEDA prioritises FPO participation in trade fairs and in infrastructure grants for FPO-owned pack-houses. Processors of scheduled products (juice, pulp, ready-to-eat, honey, dairy, chocolate, biscuits, beverages) claim quality-system certification support and market-development assistance. State governments channel proposals through the State Agri-Export Plans notified under the Agriculture Export Policy 2018 and through APEDA's regional offices.

Where are the official sources for APEDA updates, notifications and market intelligence?

The authoritative sources are the APEDA portal at apeda.gov.in (RCMC, financial-assistance schemes, notifications, product manuals, residue-monitoring plans, exporter directory), agriexchange.apeda.gov.in (India's agri-export trade information platform — HS-code-wise export statistics, country-wise trade flows, unit-value tracking and international price monitoring), and dgft.gov.in for the Import Export Code and Foreign Trade Policy context that governs export operations. APEDA's regional offices at Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Guwahati, and its sub-regional offices, handle exporter servicing and inspection referrals. Product-specific portals such as basmati.net (BEDF) and the traceability platforms (grapenet.apeda.gov.in, hortinet.apeda.gov.in, anarnet.apeda.gov.in, peanutnet.apeda.gov.in and meatnet.apeda.gov.in) round out the APEDA information stack.

APEDA Guide — Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority: APEDA Act 1985, 14 Scheduled Product Groups, RCMC Registration, Financial Assistance Schemes and How FPOs, Processors and Exporters Engage

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is the statutory body of the Government of India that promotes and regulates the export of scheduled agricultural and processed food products. It was constituted under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985 (Act 2 of 1986) and became operational in February 1986, replacing the Processed Food Export Promotion Council. Unlike most of the schemes catalogued on this site, APEDA sits under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry — notthe Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Its headquarters is at the NCUI Building, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi, with five regional offices at Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Guwahati, and a network of sub-regional offices. For the wider scheme portfolio see our India government schemes for farmers reference.

At a glance

Body type: statutory autonomous authority under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.
Constituting statute: Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985 (Act 2 of 1986).
Operational since: February 1986.
Headquarters: NCUI Building, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi.
Regional offices: Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Guwahati, supported by sub-regional offices.
Scheduled product groups: 14 groups listed in the First Schedule of the APEDA Act, plus Basmati rice under an exclusive notification.
Core credential: the Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC), mandatory for every exporter of a scheduled product.
Financial-assistance sub-schemes: Market Development, Infrastructure Development, Quality Development, Transport Assistance.
Traceability systems: GrapeNet, HortiNet, AnarNet, PeanutNet, MeatNet.
Portals: apeda.gov.in (authority), agriexchange.apeda.gov.in (trade intelligence), dgft.gov.in (Import Export Code / Foreign Trade Policy context for RCMC).

What APEDA does — the statutory mandate

Section 10 of the APEDA Act empowers the Authority to develop industries relating to the scheduled products for export by way of providing financial assistance or otherwise for undertaking surveys and feasibility studies, participating in equity capital through joint ventures and other reliefs and subsidy schemes; register exporters of the scheduled products on payment of such fees as may be prescribed; fix standards and specifications for the scheduled products for the purpose of exports; carry out inspection of meat and meat products in any slaughter-house, processing plant, storage premises, conveyances or other place where such products are kept or handled for the purpose of ensuring the quality of such products; improve packaging and marketing of the scheduled products outside India; promote export- oriented production and development of the scheduled products; collect statistics on the scheduled products; and train personnel in agriculture and processed-food-products industry. In practice this translates into three streams of activity: registration and standards, financial assistance and infrastructure and market development and trade intelligence.

The 14 scheduled product groups (plus Basmati)

The First Schedule to the APEDA Act lists fourteen groups. The table below is deliberately close to the statutory wording — it is the working list of product categories any exporter should map their consignment to before filing an RCMC application.

Fruits, vegetables and their products — fresh mango, banana, grape, pomegranate, litchi, guava, papaya, orange, sapota, onion, potato, tomato, gherkin, okra, chilli, capsicum, mushroom and their processed / dehydrated / frozen forms.
Meat and meat products — buffalo (carabeef), sheep, goat and other admissible meats, chilled and frozen forms, and processed meat.
Poultry and poultry products — table eggs, hatching eggs, poultry meat and processed poultry preparations.
Dairy products — milk powder, ghee, butter, cheese, casein, whey products and ready-to-drink dairy beverages.
Confectionery, biscuits and bakery products — sugar boiled confectionery, biscuits, cookies, wafers, breads and shelf-stable bakery.
Honey, jaggery and sugar products — natural honey, jaggery, khandsari, gur, palmyra sugar and speciality sugar preparations.
Cocoa and its products, and all kinds of chocolates.
Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages — spirits, wines, beer, fruit juices, ready-to-drink beverages and nutraceutical beverages.
Cereal and cereal products — wheat, wheat flour, semolina, ready-to-eat cereal preparations and other cereal preparations (Basmati rice is separately notified — see below).
Groundnuts, peanuts and walnuts, and by extension pulses under a co-ordinated arrangement with other agencies.
Pickles, papads and chutneys.
Guar gum — a high-value industrial hydrocolloid used in oil-and-gas, food and pharmaceutical applications.
Floriculture and floriculture products — cut flowers (rose, gerbera, chrysanthemum, orchid, lily, anthurium), cut foliage, live plants and dried floriculture.
Herbal and medicinal plants — raw drug materials, extracts and value-added preparations.

Basmati riceis placed exclusively under APEDA's ambit through a separate notification. Because Basmati enjoys a Geographical Indication (GI) tag covering the traditional Basmati-growing tracts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir — and because it is the single-largest agricultural export item by value from India — Basmati carries its own registration, DNA-based purity protocol and residue-monitoring plan under APEDA and the Basmati Export Development Foundation.

Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC)

The Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC) is the entry ticket to APEDA's ecosystem. Every exporter of a scheduled product must register with APEDA and obtain an RCMC — without it, none of APEDA's financial-assistance schemes, trade- fair participation or traceability-system enrolments can be claimed. Applications are filed online through the exporter portal at apeda.gov.in with these core documents:

Import Export Code (IEC) issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) at dgft.gov.in.
Self-attested bank certificate.
PAN of the applicant firm.
Constitution documents — Memorandum & Articles of Association / partnership deed / society or trust deed as applicable.
Prescribed registration fee.

The RCMC is issued for a five-year block and is renewable. It records the exporter as a merchant exporter or manufacturer exporter, lists the scheduled products the exporter is dealing in, and links the exporter to the appropriate APEDA regional office. RCMC is also a pre-requisite for claiming Foreign Trade Policy benefits linked to APEDA-scheduled product categories — this is why the RCMC-IEC-Foreign Trade Policy nexus is central to any export operation.

Financial-assistance sub-schemes

APEDA administers export-promotion assistance to registered exporters through four operational sub-schemes. Ceilings, unit costs and eligible activities are periodically revised in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry's Agriculture Export Promotion notifications; the summary below captures the enduring structure.

1. Market Development

Market Development assistance covers exporter participation in international trade fairs and exhibitions, APEDA-organised Buyer-Seller Meets (BSMs) — both outbound BSMs in target geographies and reverse BSMs where overseas buyers visit Indian exporting clusters — product-catalogue and brochure development, international brand promotion for GI-tagged and speciality products, product-specific advertisement campaigns in overseas media, and market research and country-specific tariff / non- tariff barrier studies. The scheme is claimed against the RCMC, typically at a defined percentage of eligible cost with a per- event ceiling.

2. Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure Development supports the post-harvest and pre- shipment infrastructure that separates a domestic supply chain from an export supply chain. Eligible interventions include integrated pack-houses with grading, sorting and packaging lines; pre-cooling and cold storage; reefer transport and refrigerated containers; specialised handling equipment (vapour-heat treatment for mango, hot-water dip for pomegranate, controlled-atmosphere storage for apples); mechanised material-handling equipment; and port-side agri-export infrastructure. These interventions typically dovetail with the horticulture pack-house infrastructure funded through the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), and with the perishables cold-chain grants of Operation Greens and the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana.

3. Quality Development

Quality Development assistance supports investments in food safety, quality management and traceability systems that international importers demand as a condition of market access. Eligible activities include installation of HACCP, ISO 22000, BRC, FSSC 22000 and GlobalG.A.P. certification systems; laboratory equipment for residue analysis, microbiological testing, heavy-metal analysis and mycotoxin (aflatoxin) testing; participation in the residue-monitoring plans that APEDA notifies annually for grapes, pomegranates, groundnut, buffalo meat and other export commodities; and the operating cost of participation in APEDA's electronic traceability systems.

4. Transport Assistance

Transport Assistance provides freight support for the export of eligible scheduled products by sea and air. It is designed to neutralise the freight disadvantage that Indian exporters face against competing origins for perishables, and is calibrated by product, destination market and mode of shipment. Reefer-container hire, air-freight and rail-cum-sea combinations are all eligible, subject to the ceilings and product-market matrices notified in each operational cycle. This assistance interlocks upstream with the freight-side subsidy of Operation Greens for domestic movement to the port / airport gate.

GI-tagged product export promotion

A distinctive strand of APEDA's work is the promotion of Geographical Indication (GI) tagged agricultural and processed food products in overseas markets. India's GI-tagged agri portfolio includes Basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, Kangra tea, Coorg green cardamom, Malabar pepper, Alphonso mango, Nagpur orange, Bhalia wheat, Naga king chilli, Wayanad Jeerakasala and Gandhakasala rice, Manipuri black rice (Chak-Hao), Kalanamak rice, Mysore silk-produced food-adjacent products and dozens of others. APEDA organises GI-specific tastings, festivals and Buyer-Seller Meets in target markets (EU, UAE, Japan, US and ASEAN), supports GI producers on export packaging, and works with the GI registry and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on protecting Indian GIs against overseas misuse. On the domestic side, GI producers often aggregate through Farmer Producer Organisations — see the 10,000 FPO scheme — and reach organised markets via e-NAM.

Traceability systems — GrapeNet, HortiNet, AnarNet, PeanutNet, MeatNet

APEDA's internet-based traceability systems are among the country's most mature farm-to-port digital pipelines. They integrate growers, pack-houses, testing laboratories, exporters, plant-protection and food-safety authorities into a single consignment-tracking chain. The importing country's border agency validates the electronic certification issued by the system at the port of entry — this is what allows Indian grapes into the European Union, buffalo meat into the Gulf and South- East Asia, and pomegranate into markets that require full residue-monitoring compliance.

GrapeNet — the pioneering platform for table-grape exports, originally built to meet the EU's MRL and traceability requirements. Growers register their farm blocks, pack-houses log inbound lot data, accredited labs upload residue test results, and APEDA issues the phytosanitary certificate on verified traceability.
HortiNet — extends the GrapeNet model to fresh horticulture beyond grape (mango, pomegranate, vegetables) for markets with mandatory residue-monitoring plans.
AnarNet — the pomegranate-specific traceability layer, integrating orchard, farm-block, pack-house, laboratory and exporter data.
PeanutNet — traces groundnut / peanut consignments for aflatoxin and pesticide-residue compliance — critical for EU, Indonesia and other markets that operate strict aflatoxin ceilings.
MeatNet — traces buffalo (carabeef) and other meat and meat product exports, integrating pre-slaughter, slaughter, chilling, deboning, packaging and cold-chain data.

Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)

The Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) is a not-for- profit trust set up by APEDA at Modipuram, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh). It works on the science, standards and promotion of Basmati rice exports — DNA-based purity testing of notified Basmati varieties, maintenance of varietal reference libraries, joint work with ICAR-IARI and State Agricultural Universities on Basmati varietal improvement, running of the residue-monitoring plan that governs pesticide compliance for importing countries, and grower and exporter training. BEDF also plays a role in Basmati GI protection in overseas markets. Its work sits at the intersection of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (through APEDA), the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (through ICAR-IARI) and the traditional Basmati- growing states.

Agriculture Export Policy and State Agri-Export Plans

APEDA operationalises much of the Agriculture Export Policy 2018 announced by the Government of India. The policy identified cluster-based export planning as central to moving India up the agri-export value curve. State governments prepare and notify State Agri-Export Plans in consultation with APEDA, identify export-oriented clusters (for example Nashik grapes, Solapur pomegranate, Anantapur banana, Chittoor mango pulp, Krishna district banana, Nagpur orange, Sikkim floriculture, Kashmir apple, Uttarakhand basmati), coordinate on infrastructure and quality gaps, and align state- level incentives with APEDA's financial-assistance sub-schemes. For the horticulture side of the same policy, see our MIDH guide; for the oilseeds and pulses side that has begun to draw export interest, see NMEO-Oilseeds; and for the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana window under which states co-fund many of these clusters, see RKVY.

How different stakeholders engage

Exporters (proprietor / partnership / LLP / company): obtain an IEC from DGFT, register on apeda.gov.in and apply for the RCMC, subscribe to the traceability system(s) relevant to their product, and claim the four financial-assistance sub- schemes against RCMC-linked activity.
Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs): engage either as exporters in their own right (RCMC in the FPO's name) or as suppliers to registered exporters. APEDA prioritises FPO participation in international Buyer-Seller Meets and in infrastructure grants for FPO-owned pack-houses; the parent FPO structure is funded under the 10,000 FPO scheme.
Food processors: claim Quality Development assistance for HACCP / ISO / BRC / GlobalG.A.P. certifications and testing infrastructure, and Market Development assistance for participation in trade fairs. On the unit side, micro processors can stack PMFME's 35% capital subsidy with APEDA's quality and market support.
Cold-chain and pack-house operators: claim Infrastructure Development assistance for integrated pack- houses, pre-cooling, cold storage, reefer transport and controlled-atmosphere infrastructure, typically alongside the MIDH pack-house component and the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana cold-chain window.
State governments: notify State Agri-Export Plans, identify export clusters, coordinate infrastructure and quality gap-filling with APEDA regional offices, and link state incentives with APEDA sub-schemes.
Testing laboratories: get accredited under APEDA's residue-monitoring plans and traceability systems, handle the sample throughput that certifies grape, pomegranate, groundnut and meat consignments for export.

Headquarters, regional and sub-regional offices

APEDA's headquarters is at the NCUI Building, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi. It runs five regional offices — Mumbai (for western India), Bangalore (for South India excluding Andhra Pradesh / Telangana), Kolkata (for eastern India), Hyderabad (for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) and Guwahati (for the North-Eastern states) — and a network of sub-regional offices closer to major export clusters and gateway ports. Exporters route RCMC applications, financial-assistance claims and traceability onboarding queries through the regional office that maps to their registered address; product-specific inspections (for example meat plant inspections under Section 10 of the APEDA Act) are coordinated from the same office. The regional and sub-regional network is also the primary interface for State Agri-Export Plan implementation.

Where APEDA sits in India's export architecture

APEDA is one of several statutory export promotion authorities under the Department of Commerce, alongside the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) for seafood, the Tea Board, the Coffee Board, the Rubber Board, the Spices Board and the Tobacco Board. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)issues the Import Export Code that underpins all exports and administers the Foreign Trade Policy. Customs is administered by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). Plant quarantine and phytosanitary certification is coordinated with the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage (DPPQS) of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. This division of labour matters — an APEDA- registered exporter shipping mango from a Krishna district orchard to the EU is simultaneously subject to APEDA's HortiNet traceability, DPPQS phytosanitary certification, DGFT's Foreign Trade Policy provisions and Customs clearance.

Cross-links with schemes on this site

MIDH — orchard, nursery, pack-house and primary cold-chain support that feeds export-oriented horticulture clusters.
Operation Greens — 50% transport and storage subsidy for the 22 TOTAL perishables from surplus clusters to consumption centres (and to export gateways).
PMFME — 35% capital subsidy for micro food processing units whose output feeds APEDA-scheduled processed-food exports.
10,000 FPO scheme — the aggregator layer that turns fragmented smallholder production into export-grade throughput.
e-NAM — the electronic National Agriculture Market that supports price discovery upstream of export.
NMEO-Oilseeds — oilseeds and pulses production mission that intersects APEDA's groundnut / peanut and cereal-preparation categories.
RKVY — the state-level agricultural planning window used to co-fund cluster-based export infrastructure alongside APEDA support.
MPEDA — the companion statutory export-promotion authority under the same Department of Commerce, covering marine and export-oriented aquaculture products (shrimp, frozen fish, cephalopods, value-added seafood).

Frequently asked questions

What is APEDA and which ministry runs it?: APEDA — the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority — is a statutory autonomous body of the Government of India, constituted under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985 (Act 2 of 1986). It became operational in February 1986 and functions under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry — not the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. APEDA is headquartered at the NCUI Building, 3 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi. Its mandate is to promote the export of scheduled agricultural and processed food products by providing financial assistance, developing infrastructure, prescribing standards and specifications, undertaking market development, and running product traceability and registration systems for exporters.
Which product groups fall under APEDA's mandate?: The First Schedule of the APEDA Act specifies fourteen product groups. These are: (1) fruits, vegetables and their products; (2) meat and meat products; (3) poultry and poultry products; (4) dairy products; (5) confectionery, biscuits and bakery products; (6) honey, jaggery and sugar products; (7) cocoa and its products, and all kinds of chocolates; (8) alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages; (9) cereal and cereal products; (10) groundnuts, peanuts and walnuts; (11) pickles, papads and chutneys; (12) guar gum; (13) floriculture and floriculture products; and (14) herbal and medicinal plants. Under a separate notification Basmati rice is placed exclusively under APEDA's ambit, which is why every commercial Basmati export consignment moves through APEDA's Basmati registration and export protocol.
What is the Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC) and who needs it?: The Registration-cum-Membership Certificate (RCMC) is the single most important compliance credential for any exporter dealing in APEDA-scheduled products. Any person or firm exporting scheduled products from India must register as an exporter with APEDA and hold a valid RCMC. Applications are filed online through the APEDA portal at apeda.gov.in with the Import Export Code (IEC) issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), a self-attested bank certificate, PAN and the applicant's constitution documents. The RCMC is issued for a five-year block and must be renewed thereafter. It is a pre-requisite for claiming any of APEDA's financial-assistance sub-schemes and for participating in APEDA-organised Buyer-Seller Meets, exhibitions and international trade fairs.
What are APEDA's financial-assistance schemes?: APEDA administers its export-promotion assistance through four principal sub-schemes under the Agriculture Export Promotion umbrella. Market Development assistance covers exporter participation in international trade fairs, Buyer-Seller Meets and reverse Buyer-Seller Meets, product brochures, and international brand promotion. Infrastructure Development supports post-harvest handling — integrated pack-houses, pre-cooling units, cold storage, reefer transport, mechanised handling equipment and specialised agri-export infrastructure. Quality Development supports installation of quality management, food safety and residue-testing systems, HACCP / ISO / BRC / GlobalG.A.P. certifications, laboratory equipment and residue-monitoring plan participation. Transport Assistance provides freight support for the export of eligible scheduled products by air and sea (including reefer container hire) from notified surplus clusters to overseas markets, subject to ceilings notified in the operational guidelines. All four are claimed against the RCMC on the APEDA portal.
What are APEDA's traceability systems — GrapeNet, HortiNet, AnarNet, PeanutNet and MeatNet?: APEDA runs internet-based, end-to-end electronic traceability systems that track a consignment from the farm block through the pack-house, laboratory and exporter to the destination country's border check. GrapeNet, the first such system, tracks table-grape exports from India (originally to the European Union). HortiNet extends the model to other fresh horticulture — mango, pomegranate and vegetables — for markets that require Maximum Residue Level (MRL) compliance and residue-monitoring plans. AnarNet is a dedicated traceability layer for pomegranate. PeanutNet covers groundnut / peanut consignments for aflatoxin and residue compliance. MeatNet covers buffalo (carabeef) and other meat and meat product exports, integrating pre-slaughter, slaughter, chilling, deboning, packaging and cold-chain data. Each system links growers, pack-houses, testing laboratories and exporters and issues the electronic certification that the importing country's plant-protection or food-safety authority accepts at the port of entry.
What is the Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF)?: The Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) was set up by APEDA at Modipuram, Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) as a not-for-profit trust to support and promote Basmati rice exports. BEDF undertakes DNA-based purity testing of Basmati rice varieties, maintains varietal reference libraries, works with ICAR-IARI and State Agricultural Universities on Basmati varietal improvement, runs residue-monitoring plans for pesticide compliance with importing countries, and organises grower and exporter training. Because Basmati is the single-largest agricultural export item by value from India and enjoys a Geographical Indication (GI) tag covering the traditional Basmati-growing tracts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, BEDF also plays a role in Basmati GI protection in overseas markets.
How do FPOs, processors and exporters engage with APEDA?: The engagement path depends on the entity. An exporter — proprietor, partnership firm, company, LLP, Farmer Producer Organisation or co-operative — first obtains an IEC from DGFT, then registers on apeda.gov.in and applies for the RCMC. Once registered, the exporter can subscribe to APEDA's traceability platform relevant to the commodity (GrapeNet / HortiNet / AnarNet / PeanutNet / MeatNet), participate in APEDA-organised Buyer-Seller Meets and international exhibitions, and file claims under the four financial-assistance sub-schemes. FPOs producing scheduled commodities engage either as exporters in their own right or as suppliers to registered exporters — APEDA prioritises FPO participation in trade fairs and in infrastructure grants for FPO-owned pack-houses. Processors of scheduled products (juice, pulp, ready-to-eat, honey, dairy, chocolate, biscuits, beverages) claim quality-system certification support and market-development assistance. State governments channel proposals through the State Agri-Export Plans notified under the Agriculture Export Policy 2018 and through APEDA's regional offices.
Where are the official sources for APEDA updates, notifications and market intelligence?: The authoritative sources are the APEDA portal at apeda.gov.in (RCMC, financial-assistance schemes, notifications, product manuals, residue-monitoring plans, exporter directory), agriexchange.apeda.gov.in (India's agri-export trade information platform — HS-code-wise export statistics, country-wise trade flows, unit-value tracking and international price monitoring), and dgft.gov.in for the Import Export Code and Foreign Trade Policy context that governs export operations. APEDA's regional offices at Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Guwahati, and its sub-regional offices, handle exporter servicing and inspection referrals. Product-specific portals such as basmati.net (BEDF) and the traceability platforms (grapenet.apeda.gov.in, hortinet.apeda.gov.in, anarnet.apeda.gov.in, peanutnet.apeda.gov.in and meatnet.apeda.gov.in) round out the APEDA information stack.

Official sources

APEDA — apeda.gov.in (RCMC, financial-assistance schemes, notifications, exporter directory, product manuals, residue-monitoring plans).
APEDA Agri Exchange — agriexchange.apeda.gov.in (HS-code-wise export statistics, country trade flows, unit-value tracking, international price monitoring).
Directorate General of Foreign Trade — dgft.gov.in (Import Export Code and Foreign Trade Policy — the context in which the RCMC is issued).
Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Department of Commerce — commerce.gov.in (Agriculture Export Policy 2018 and related notifications).
Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF), Modipuram, Meerut — an APEDA-anchored not-for-profit trust for Basmati science, standards and promotion.
Traceability portals — GrapeNet, HortiNet, AnarNet, PeanutNet and MeatNet under the apeda.gov.in umbrella.

This page is for general guidance. For the latest RCMC procedure, financial-assistance sub-scheme ceilings, residue-monitoring plans, cluster notifications, traceability onboarding and Basmati-specific protocols, please refer directly to apeda.gov.in, agriexchange.apeda.gov.in and dgft.gov.in.