Licensing/ Registration of Agricultural products in India. Agriculture with its allied sectors, in India has made a lot of progress since independence. It also contributes a significant figure to the GDP. Agriculture export has increased with special efforts of government of India, making India one of the leading exporters of food grain in international market.
All exporters have to register with the Director General of Foreign trade who provides them with an Import Export Code (IEC) number. To get benefits and concessions under the export-import policy, exporters should register with an appropriate export promotion agency by obtaining a registration-cum-membership certificate.
Basic features of Agriculture License in India
- All exporter & importer needs to have Import Export code (IEC) Number
- Government through different Act formed various authorities in its endeavour to augment agro exports
- Financial assistance is extended to exporters
- Every exporter /importer needs to comply with the conditions of License
- Inform authorities with regard to every changes or modification in the activities
All the businesses which aim to do international trading of agricultural products have to register with a regional licensing authority that provides them with an Import Export Code (IEC) number. Custom officials will not permit clearance of goods unless the importer gets an Import Export Code (IEC) number from the regional licensing authority. Director General of Foreign trade is the authority that provides them with an Import Export Code (IEC) number.
The government of India has established several bodies like APEDA, Spices Board, etc. for the development of agro-industries and to regulate the scheduled products for exports by fixing of standards and specifications for export. To get benefits and concessions under the export-import policy, exporters should register with an appropriate export promotion agency by obtaining a registration-cum-membership certificate. There are various registrations that an entity is required to obtain in the course of business, some of them are being discussed here. However, based on the business transactions a particular business may require other registrations, you may please contact us for consultancy on that.
Major agricultural products have to go through quality control and pre-shipment inspections before export under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963. However, products that have an ISI Certification Mark or Agmark do not need to be inspected by any agency. All goods should be labelled, packaged, packed and marked before export.
Imports to India are governed by the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992. Under this Act, imports of all goods are free except for the items regulated by the policy or any other law in force. The items regulated by this policy is classified as prohibited list which cannot be imported. For import of items that appear in the ‘Restricted’ list one need to secure an import License whereas the items that are enumerated in the canalized list are permitted to be imported through canalizing Agencies. All other products can be freely imported.
Import of agricultural product was a concern for the manufactures as there was no settled procedure for it. Now we have import procedure for most of the agricultural products, fisheries sector, horticulture, livestock products. There are different departments / agencies for development of industries, fixing of standards and specifications relating to the scheduled products for export, registration of members, licensing, etc.
Licensing/Registration of Agricultural Products in India. Agriculture with its allied sectors, in India has made a lot of progress since independence. It also contributes a significant figure to the GDP. Agriculture export has increased with special efforts of the government of India, making India one of the leading exporters of food grain in the international market. All exporters have to register with the Director General of Foreign Trade who provides them with an Import Export Code (IEC) number. To get benefits and concessions under the export-import policy, exporters should register with an appropriate export promotion agency by obtaining a registration-cum-membership certificate.