EU agri-food business delegation to India

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski will be visiting India on 6-12 December 2023, accompanied by a business delegation of senior representatives from the EU agri-food sector, in conjunction with the European Commission’s presence at SIAL India international fair with an EU pavilion. The purpose of this visit is to facilitate European agricultural food and beverage exports to India and expand their presence on this market. The Commission invites in particular business representatives from key sectors to apply, including fruits and vegetables.

The Commissioner would like to include in his business delegation European and national producers’ organisations and companies from all EU countries with strong export potential that preferably have not participated in such EU projects before. The final selection of the business representatives will be based on product and geographical balance of the delegation. In this context the candidates’ representativeness of a given sector, their capacity to conduct international business and accessing challenging markets will also be considered.

The visit to India will focus on providing market intelligence in the food and beverage sector, business-to-business activities, as well as retail and site visits. The programme of the business delegation will provide the representatives of the European agri-food sector with an excellent platform to discover the Indian market and to make direct business contacts both in New Delhi (mainly at SIAL India) as well as in Mumbai with B2B professionals from across India.

Participants are required to cover the cost of flights and hotels themselves. All business events in the official programme, including local transport and the transit between Delhi and Mumbai, will be covered by the European Commission.

Interested applicants are invited to register now, deadline to apply is 15 June 2023.

Practical questions can be addressed to the Research Executive Agency at the following email address: REA-AGRI-EVENTS@ec.europa.eu.

India is a very big market with over 1.3 billion people and a fast-growing economy. Yet so far, India’s potential as a major destination for EU agri-food exports remains largely untapped. Challenges to enter this particular market range from agri-food import policies to specific business culture and consumer habits. As a result, the EU has increasingly negative agri-food trade balance with India.

The European Union has been involved in promoting EU agricultural food and beverage products in India. It has been co-financing 11 ongoing promotion campaigns proposed by organisations from different EU countries and targeting the country. Further activities include the European Commission’s promotion campaign “More than Food – India”, our presence at the SIAL international fair and at Annapoorna, the Promotion export seminar, and the Market Entry Handbook.