The government has put certain conditions such as taking an export certificate for outbound shipments of sesame seeds to the European Union countries.
Notifying the conditions, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Commerce Ministry, said Indian Oilseeds & Produce Export Promotion Council (IOPEPC) is designated as competent authority to issue export certification. The IOPEPC shall issue export certification within two working days of receiving the request from an exporter, it added.
The move assumes significance as large numbers of alerts were received from the EU countries about the presence of salmonella bacteria in the consignments. Earlier, the IOPEPC in a circular had advised the exporters to conform the testing norms of sesame seed cargo to the EU countries.
They had urged the exporters to comply with the guidelines for exports of all grades and varieties of sesame seeds to EU.