Nashik: The district is gearing up for the 2018-19 (Dec-April) grape export season. The state agriculture department has decided to start registration of vineyards from October 1.The department is expecting 20% rise in registration of vineyards for export of grapes for the coming season.As per the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) norms, registration of vineyards is mandatory to export grapes. The office of the superintending agriculture officer carries out the registration process.During the last season, 30,351 farmers had registered 19,557 hectares of vineyards in the district. In 2016-17 season, 34,110 farmers registered 22,154 hectares of vineyards.“The last date for registration will be November 30. Last year, the deadline was extended till December 30,” said an official from the agriculture department.The grape exports from the district had declined by 22% to 1.02 lakh tonne during the last grape season, against 1.31 lakh tonne during the previous season. The drop in yield due to bad climatic conditions had affected grape production.Of 1.02 lakh tonne exports, 80,782 tonnes were exported to European countries, the rest was exported to counties like Russia, Sri Lanka and China.

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