ONION TRADE
Products in the export market:

(White, Red, Yellow & Green)Onion whole peeled , Diced , Sliced, Onion Powder, Granulated, Ground, Minced, Chopped to required sizes, kibbled, Toasted, Agglomerated, Custom Blends & Specialty Products, Onion Puree, Dehydrated onions fried in vegetable oils, Grilled, Char-grilled and Flame-grilled, Caramelized, Smoked, Marinated, Cooked and Boiled, Canned onions, Frozen Onions.Onions are high in energy and water content. They are low in calories, and have a generous amount of B6, B1, and Folic acid. Onions contain chemicals which help fight the free radicals in our bodies

Besides India and China, the other major onion producing countries are Turkey, Pakistan, Brazil, United States of America, Iran, Spain and Japan.

In India, major onion growing states are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. India produces all three varieties of onion – red, yellow and white

Major importers from USA are: Canada, Australia Germany, Japan, Netherlands, South Africa Sweden, United Kingdom.India, Peru & China are major exporters to USA & other countries.

India produces around 4 million metric tons of onion annually and is the 2nd largest onion producer in the world, first being China.India’s onion exports cater mainly to the neighboring South East Asian countries and some Middle East nations. Malaysia, UAE, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Singapore and Saudi Arabia account for the major share of exports from India. Indian Exports have been allowed only after domestic requirements have been met

‘Emerging opportunities beyond liquid milk’
The market for dairy delicacies in India is growing annually by Rs 5,000 crore every year as mechanisation takes root.
The market for this largest and fastest growing segment of Indian dairying is estimated at Rs 50,000 crore. The growth of this sector is impressive at Rs 5,000 crore per year, covering products such as dahi, paneer, gulabjamun, rasogolla and shrikhand.


The dairy industry needs to recognise the importance of indigenous products to sustain its overall growth. Also, enough attention and investments are necessary to raise the status of this product category from a dominantly non-organised to the organised and allow it to emerge as a mature segment of the industry.
Major market for Indian milk-based sweets is emerging overseas. In North America alone, the market is estimated at $ 500 million. In order to make an enduring presence in the world food market, production of ethnic products has to meet the international standards.

The way forward would be the development of appropriate packaging systems, consistent with the international standards, that will help establish national and international marketing network for mithais. In-depth studies are needed on the biochemical and microbiological changes during storage affecting the product shelf life.

The indigenous dairy products are India’s largest selling and most profitable segment and account for 50 per cent of milk produced. Significant headway has been made in the industrial production of traditional sweets such as shrikhand, gulabjamun, peda and burfi.
India’s dairy market is multi-layered, shaped like a pyramid, with the base made up of the vast market for low-cost, liquid, raw milk. The narrow tip at the top is a small but affluent market, largely for western-type and fresh packaged dairy products.

The expected rise in the purchasing power of growing urban population would give an added boost. New emerging dairy markets would focus on food service institutional market, which is growing at double the rate of consumer market.

Defence market is also important growing market for quality products at reasonable prices. A boom is forecast in the market of dairy products used as raw material in pharmaceutical and allied industries.

The increasing ‘away-from-home’ consumption trend opens new vistas for ready-to-serve dairy products, which would ride piggyback on the fast food revolution sweeping urban India.

PRISE

The Multi fiber Arrangement (MFA) which established quotas on different categories of apparel and textile imports to the US and the European Union, will be fully phased out on January 1, 2005
The Phasing-out of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing on Apparel Exports on the Developing Countries will have serious implications.
There is need to know Information concerning how different countries and Manufacturers of Apparels are planning to face the challenge, what is the Status of the Industry, Fashion Trends, Markets, what are the developments with regard to Supply Chain Integration, Locating Retailers world wide, finding their Vendor Development Approaches & Policies

From House Wife to Women Entrepreneurs
Shanthi, Tamizhselvi and Sumitha were total strangers to one another. Yet, the other day, just hours after they met for the first time, they were sitting together, like comrades, discussing their plans for the future.

Unknown to them, there were a couple of things in common: They were all entrepreneurs, who worked in reduced circumstances and winners of the Bharat Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) entrepreneurship awards.

On their own, they decided to launch on a career of entrepreneurship, partly to have something to do and partly to supplement family income.

"I now earn more than my husband, though when I started I made a loss of Rs. 8,000," says Tamizhselvi of Tirunelveli district. Barely 17 years when she was married and just a matriculate, Tamizhselvi moved to Chennai with her husband, looking out for sources of income.

And she ended up incurring a huge loss. "My first venture at starting a business cost me Rs. 8,000. But, struggling to get out of that, I realised I could go nowhere without training. So I got some basic training in the Small Industries Services Institute, Guindy."
From making candles and soaps, taking tips from a well-meaning neighbour, she moved into the garment industry.

"Well, it was not really `industry.' We were making and selling handkerchiefs. Later, we got a Jet Airways contract for making aprons and seat covers. Within two months, we sold 30,000 pieces and other companies seemed interested," says Tamizhselvi.

The change has not been so dramatic for Sumitha, nevertheless she is glad about the way things turned out. At Kancheepuram, she, along with her husband, teaches at a night school for child labourers. During day, she goes to dumping yards, picking up garbage, segregating it and composting bio-waste. She generates at least 50 kg of compost every month. "I get Rs. 2,000-2,500 every month. I make no investment. Everything I make is profit," says Sumitha. Eventually, she hopes to generate more than 5,000 kg of compost.

Shanti, on the other hand, talks of concepts: food scarcity, environment conservation and awareness generation among farmers.

She holds a diploma in agriculture. Propagation of the message of vermicomposting and biomanure is her passion and industry too.

"My entrepreneurship is in the area of service. I do it not only to make some money to keep the family going but also because it is important that someone does these things."

Apart from the three is Rajeswari, who came later on her scooter, taking time off her work.

In May 1995, she started selling printer cartridges, pledging her mother's jewels and borrowing Rs. 20,000 from the BYST.

She built up the business slowly and now leases a factory which makes computer peripherals and has an annual turnover of Rs. 31.75 lakhs.

Rajeswari won the BYST's JRD Tata award for business excellence in 2000 and dreams of importing products from Japan and Singapore.

There is no need to dereserve the manufacture of ice cream.
Howerver, it was felt that it was necessary to clarify that the ice cream reserved for exclusive manufacture for small scale sector did not include frozen desert containing only non-dairy products and manufactured under condition which ensured freezing and storing at temperatures below-11 0C. It was also mentioned that most of the ice cream manufactures in the SSI sector were not frozen upto and below 11 11 0C, the temperature below which shelf life of the ice cream is longer and the bacteria injurious to health, are inactive.

India 's diamond adventure took off in the 1970s when a small group of intrepid merchants, mostly Jains from Palanpur on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, began invading the Belgian city of Antwerp , where 90 percent of the world's uncut diamonds were traded each year.
In time, they would challenge another legendary clan, the Hasidic Jews, who had dominated the trade from the time they arrived from Spain and Portugal in the 1500s.


What took the Hasidim centuries to accomplish was overturned by the Jains in only two decades. They did so using tactics that the software industry replicated some years later.
First, they worked at the bottom end of the spectrum, taking up the smaller uncut diamonds that the Jews ignored as low-value.

Next, they ‘outsourced' the finishing jobs to India (where incidentally, the diamond industry employs more people than the IT industry), while working their way up the value chain.

The result is that the Indians' share of Antwerps $26 billion-a-year diamond revenues is said to have grown to roughly 65 per cent, while the Jewish share has fallen to about 25 per cent from 70 per cent in the last 20 years.

According to an insider, seven of Antwerps top ten diamond houses are now owned by Indians. They are called G-7 in trade circles. "It's the first world industry where Indians are truly kicking butt," says market maven Prashant Kothari.

A recent AP account of the emergence of Indians in Antwerp spoke of how the city's Hoveniersstraat, "a street once celebrated for its kosher restaurants, now offers the best curry in town."

Ditto in New York and Hong Kong . One industry insider revealed that more than half the 84 "sightholders" (a tight clan of regulars) who buy diamonds from de Beers are Indian.

Fortunately, the Jews and the Jains, two almost exclusive clans, have maintained cordial, even warm, ties.
Some Jain dealers have learnt Hebrew and Yiddish; some Hasidim can speak a smattering of Gujarati. Jain weddings now have a kosher section; and Jews have learnt to make chai. There has even been a Jain-Jewish wedding.

The remarkable thing is, like with the software industry, India does not produce much original or branded diamond products.
India only cuts and polishes 80 per cent of the 125 million carats of diamonds produced world-wide the diamond industry equivalent of back-office software coding. So how come the expertise?

One explanation is legacy. India provided the world's first diamonds and dominated the supplies until the 18th century diamond rushes in South Africa and Brazil .

Even today, some of the world's most famous stones are from India , including the Kohinoor, the Great Mogul, the Regent, and the Blue Hope Diamond.

It's probably the same reason dealing with the binary system, the ones and zeros that form the basis of computing, comes so easily. Been there, done that.

Going by the giddy coverage in the media, shining India 's lustre seems derived entirely from its booming info-tech sector to the exclusion of all others. To put it in perspective, India 's IT sector accounts for a meager 0.5 per cent of the world market share, but it is still considered the crown jewel of India 's success story.

In contrast, India 's diamond industry handles 80 per cent of the global polished diamond market, and earned $8 billion last year (compared to software's $ 10 billion.) So why do we hear so much about IT and so little about the diamond business?

"The Small Industry Development tantamounts to taking Capitalism to the middle class and even poor"
"Small Companies face competition from very big firms and a frontal assault doesn't work.How can Entrepreneur win ?"

"Be more skilled and use surprise to your advandage.Avoid playing the opponents's game. Never try to outspend a larger competitor or deliver as many products. But their strenght is also a weakness: the larger they are, the longer it takes for communications to move from head to foot or hands, the greater likelihood of slipped coordination,and the slower they move.
Larger companies,like bigger people,are focused higher and often less in contact with ground." - Robert Pater

Is Small beautiful ?
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