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As India’s agricultural exports slipped nearly 9 per cent between April to February in FY24 to $43.7 billion due to the Red Sea crisis, the Russia-Ukraine war, along with domestic restrictions, the government has begun formulating plans to boost exports of 20 items, including bananas, mangoes, potatoes, and baby corn, that have significant growth potential in the global export markets.
“We have identified 20 products. At present, India’s share is low in global exports. We are working on detailed action for all these products. India’s share is about 2.5 per cent in global exports, and the aim is to increase it to about 4-5 per cent in the coming years,” Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Rajesh Agarwal said on Tuesday.
The items include fresh grapes, guava, pomegranate, watermelon, onion, green chili, capsicum, okra, garlic, groundnut, alcoholic beverages, cashew nut, buffalo meat, jaggery, and natural honey.
While India’s exports of these items in 2022 stood at $9.03 billion, the global imports of the above-mentioned items came in at $405.24 billion in the same year, with the US, Malaysia, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Korea, China, Indonesia, Japan, Italy, Belgium, and the UK being the top buyers.
The official further said that the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is working with different institutes to develop sea protocols for ginger, pineapple, mangoes, and oranges to promote shipments through sea routes. At present, they are mainly shipped through air routes.
Developing sea protocol reduces the logistics cost for export of horticulture produce to long-distance markets and enables a quantum increase in exports of items like bananas, mangoes, pomegranates, and other fresh fruits and vegetables, APEDA Chairman Abhishek Dev said.
Official data shows that exports of the 719 scheduled agri-products in the APEDA basket declined by 6.85 percent to 22.4 billion during the 11-month period of the last fiscal, as against $24 billion in April-February 2022-23.
The export ban and restrictions on commodities like rice, wheat, sugar, and onions have hit agri-exports by about $5-6 billion in the last fiscal, an official said. However, among 24 principal commodities (in the APEDA basket), 17 have recorded positive growth during the period, including fresh fruit, buffalo meat, processed vegetables, basmati rice, and bananas.
The exports of basmati rice increased 22 percent from $4.2 billion in April-February 2022-23 to $5.2 billion in April-February 2023-24 in value terms, an official said.
