Indian exports are set to reach the targeted $80 billion mark by the close of 2007, thus raising the country's share in global exports to one per cent, the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said in Patna on Wednesday.
Indian export volume stands at $48 billion at present, he said addressing a function to disburse subsidy worth Rs 83.16 lakh (Rs 8.3 million) to small tea growers of Bihar's Kishanganj district organised by the Tea Board of India.
He said India being the largest tea exporter in the world had vast scope for value addition in this sector.
Rudy said to give a fresh thrust to agro-exports, 40 agro-zones had been created across the country. There is vast potential for improving exports of leather products as well, he said.
The minister said that Bihar had been engaging the attention of the Centre in the past for tea development activities with a view to not only augmenting the tea production by way of expansion but also to bring in the fruits of socio-economic development to the local population.
The Union Civil Aviation Minister, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who represents Kishanganj in Parliament, called for enhanced cooperation between the tea growers in the state and the state government.