Karnataka to promote Bengaluru rose onion exports

Bengaluru: Four onion growing producer organisations of Karnataka signed an agreement with the city-based BS Allium Cepa Exports Ltd to promote Bengaluru Rose onion exports.

"The state government has identified Chikkaballapur, Kolar and Bengaluru Rural district as rose onion clusters to encourage their exports under the agriculture export policy of the Central government through interventions," said an official of the Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation Ltd (KSAPPEC) in a statement here.

Rose onion, grown in about 1,200 hectares of farmlands in Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts, is much sought after in Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand for spicy food.

"As rose onion does not have much demand in the domestic market, most of the produce is exported every year from Bengauru," said the statement.

The Bengaluru Rose onion is a special GI tagged variety due to its unique characteristic of deep red in colour with high pungency and special taste.

"The agreement will enable 2,500 farmers in the 3 districts to produce about 20,000 tonne of rose onion for export per annum," said the statement.

The state-run National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), an apex development finance institute, is working with KSAPPEC to address supply chain constraints to export the rose onion crop.

Nabard Chief General Manager Niraj Kumar Verma and KAPPEC Managing Director B. Shivaraju were present on the occasion.

The state government is also making efforts to identify clusters to promote export of pomegranate, coffee and black pepper through better post-harvest management, training on global gap certification and value addition.