New Delhi: India’s agriculture and processed food export recorded a sharp hike of more than 44% in the first three months of the current fiscal despite a ferocious second Covid wave hitting the country, showed the latest trade data.
The exports of products in the APEDA basket rose from $3.34 billion in April-June last year to $4.82 billion in the first three months of the current financial year FY 2021-22, an increase of 44.3% on yearly basis.
“The huge jump in exports of agricultural and processed food products during the first three months of the current fiscal, is in continuation of growth in exports witnessed in the financial year 2020-21,” said the ministry of commerce.
According to the WTO’s trade map, with the total Agri exports of $37 billion in the year 2019, India ranked at the 9th position in the world.
Officials said the sharp spike in Agri export was witnessed at a time when the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic was at its peak.
In terms of Indian agri-exports, the country has registered an increase of more than 25% in terms of dollar and more than 29% in terms of rupees in the FY 2020-21 (April-March) in comparison to the same period in the previous year.
Officials are hopeful that the country will be able to register an overall 15% growth in the country’s agriculture export in the current financial year.
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What is driving agri, food exports?
As per the quick estimates, the export of fresh fruits and vegetables registered a 9.1% growth, while shipment of processed food products like cereals preparations and other processed items reported a sharp jump of nearly 70%, in April-June this year.
During April-June last year, fresh fruits and vegetables were exported to the tune of $584.5 million, which rose to $637.7 million in April-June this year.
The country recorded a huge 415.5% jump in the export of other cereals while the export of meat, dairy and poultry products witnessed an increase of 111.5% in the first three months of the current fiscal.
The export of other cereals increased from $44.9 million in April-June 2020 to $231.4 million in April-June this year. And the export of meat, dairy and poultry products increased from $483.5 million in April-June last year to $1022.5 million in April-June this year.
The export of rice, which recorded a positive growth of 25.3%, increased from $1914.5 million in April-June last year to $2398.5 million in April-June this year.
Agriculture and processed food production export Development Authority (APEDA), under the ministry of commerce and industries, have been organising business-to-business (B2B) exhibitions in different countries to promote India’s agricultural and processed food products.
In addition to this, APEDA has been promoting food and Agri products having registered geographical indications (GI tags) and organising virtual buyer-seller meets. APEDA has recognised 220 labs across the country for GI tag certification of food products.
