New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) The commerce ministry's arm Export Inspection Council (EIC) plans to expand food testing infrastructure in a holistic way to boost outbound shipments, a senior government official said.

The EIC has initiated a detailed study on gap assessment on food testing infrastructure for exports, the official added.

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"Though we have taken a number of measures, we are doing a deeper analysis commodity and area-wise. We are trying to find out gaps in our food testing infrastructure.

“We hope that the study will be over in 2-3 months and after that we will come up with a full plan of how to expand our infrastructure in a more holistic way," Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce Nitin Kumar Yadav told reporters here.

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EIC is an advisory body to the central government. It notifies commodities which will be subjected to quality control or inspection prior to export; establish standards of quality for such notified commodities, and specify the type of quality control or inspection to be applied to such commodities.

The EIC is also set to launch an integrated traceability module to streamline and manage processes involved in inspection, testing and certification for exports, he said, adding that they are adopting advanced technologies like IoT-based sampling techniques.

New laboratories are coming up in Ahmedabad, Faridabad and Mangalore, he said. Further, the EIC is signing mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) and MoUs for different products with different countries so that the EIC's mechanisms and processes are recognised the world over.

It helps exporters cut transaction costs.

"We are aspiring that India doAs. We are also understanding requirements of other countries and we are developing capacities so that we can haveAs with them," Yadav said.

According to the commerce ministry, EIC has ramped up testing facilities in the country to 78 accredited labs.

The number of export establishments approved through the EIC system has also increased to 1,446 from 794 during the last decade.

Export certificates accepted by importing countries have nearly doubled in a decade, surging from 61,000 to over 120,000.

The council has developed the trust of international regulatory authorities by demonstration of effective official control systems, which are evident in the number of export certificates accepted by importing countries, which grew from 61,000 in 2013-14 to over 120,000 during 2023-24, which has almost doubled in the last decade.

The EIC's certification system is recognized by major international regulatory bodies, including that of the European Union, USA, Australia, Turkey, Korea, and Japan, reflecting its commitment to international quality benchmarks.

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