The Indian government's strategy for promotion of herbal exports from the country has hit a road block as the Basic Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics Export Promotion Council (Chemexcil), a semi government body attached to the commerce ministry, has decided to move out from a panel set up jointly by the Ayurvedic Drug Manufacturers' Association (ADMA) and Chemexcil.

In the wake of this development, the government grant of Rs 10-12 lakh to support the projects undertaken by this panel will lapse, industry sources said.

Chemexcil officials said that due to the lukewarm response from the ayurvedic industry on suggestions and guidance, the Council has decided to pull out from the panel which was set up on herbal exports in 1998.

The government had earlier appointed ORG-MARG to work out the modalities for the export promotion programme and Rs 24 lakh had been granted for this project. Of this, Rs 20 lakh has been allocated for data collection and the rest will go towards expenses for internationally registering the Harmonised Systems Code for standardized ayurvedic products.

As per the plan, 60 per cent of the amount required for the promotion of ayurvedic products in the international market was granted by the government and the rest 40 per cent was to be pooled by the ayurvedic companies.

With the exit of Chemexcil from this joint programme, Department of Indian System of Medicine will be collaborating with ADMA for the project.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that, the project for identifying herbal species with potential for export has now been handed over to the department of Indian System of Medicine (ISM), under the Union ministry of health. In short, there will be no direct representation from ADMA in the project for promotion of ayurvedic exports from India although it is the only leading association of ayurvedic companies with a membership of about 250 companies.

Ayurvedic exports from the country is expected to leap in the next few years. With product patents regime around the corner, companies like Dabur, Zandu, Himalaya and J B Chemicals have been aggressively pursuing herbal export plans to developed markets like the United States and Europe.