For the third consecutive financial year, Gujarat has remained the top exporter of India. For 2022-23, Gujarat’s total exports have been pegged at Rs 12 lakh crore, which is 27% higher than the exports made in 2021-22. Gujarat’s share in India’s total exports remained 33% in 2022-23. It was 30% in 2021-22.

 

Among the states, Maharashtra was earlier the highest exporter and Gujarat was in second position. However, in 2020-21, Gujarat overtook Maharashtra with a narrow margin but thereafter the gap has increased and Gujarat has left Maharashtra far behind.

 

An official of Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said after the full implementation of GST, they get accurate figures of export from all states. 'In 2020-21, we started getting accurate data from the states but that year the world was under Covid-induced lockdown. Thereafter, Gujarat’s export figures jumped over 100%,’’ the official said. Exporters say the major contribution to Gujarat’s export figures is petroleum products. Because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, there is a significant rise in India’s import of crude from Russia and export of refined petroleum products. India’s export of petroleum products increased more than 60% in last financial year and Gujarat was the major contributor.

 

Among the other major exporting items are ceramics, pharma, engineering goods, jems and jewellery, and chemicals. After implementation of GST, many Surat-based diamond units have started exporting from Surat instead of doing it from Mumbai where they have their offices.

 

A leading ceramic exporter from Morbi said the weak rupee against dollar also helped exporters in offering competitive rates in the international markets. 'We could reduce our margins to give a tough fight to our competitors and it helped us in getting more orders,' said Anil Detroja.

India will remain the fastest-growing major economy in terms of both aggregate and per capita GDP despite the slowdown in growth, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

 

'Growth is projected to pick up slightly through 2025-26 as inflation moves back toward the midpoint of the tolerance range and reforms payoff,' World Bank said.

 

The World Bank kept its April forecasts unchanged, projecting India's growth for FY24 at 6.3%, increasing to 6.4% in FY25. For FY26, it has projected a growth of 6.5%. It said India will lift the growth prospects of the South Asian region.

 

'Unexpected resilience in private consumption and investment, and robust growth in the services sector in India, underlie an upward revision to growth in 2023,' said the report.

Key officials from India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will meet for two days from June 11 to review the progress of the year-old Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

 

A delegation from the UAE will be in Delhi next to meet key officials from the department of commerce, a person aware of the matter said.

 

'Officials of Customs departments from both sides are also expected to meet and work out a mechanism towards data sharing, which  will aid in deciphering the utilisation of the trade deal,' the official cited above told Business Standard.

 

Besides, committees will also be set up on each policy area or chapter, such as services, investment, under the trade deal. A business delegation will also be present to discuss investment opportunities in India.

 

The India-UAE CEPA entered into force on May 1, 2022. Under the deal, both countries have exchanged tariff concessions on products of mutual export interests. The UAE offered tariff concessions to India on over 97 per cent of its tariff lines amounting to 99 per cent of trade in value terms. India, on the other hand, has offered preferential access to the UAE on over 90 per of its tariff lines, including lines of export interest to the UAE.

 

The UAE is India’s second largest export market, after the United States (US), and third largest trading partner after the US and China at $31.61 billion and $84.84 billion, respectively.

 

India is hoping to export goods worth $50 billion to the West Asian nation by FY27.

 

While total trade between both nations grew 16 per cent year-on-year to $84.84 billion in FY23, it was mainly due to higher imports, driven by inbound shipments of oil hitting the domestic shores from the UAE.

 

Trade deficit stood at $21.62 billion. Government officials, however, pointed out that the deficit was expected to narrow amid cooling down of petroleum prices globally.

 

During the CEPA implementation period, the bilateral trade increased to $76.9 billion, up 14 per cent YoY. During the same period, India’s exports to the UAE witnessed an 8.5 per cent jump on year to $28.5 billion, while exports to the rest of the world, excluding the UAE grew 3.1 per cent. The jump in exports was mainly due to higher demand for sectors, such as gems and jewellery, machinery and automobiles. Export of products, such as iron and steel and textiles, contracted due to imposition of export restrictions and tepid demand, respectively.

 

According to the commerce department’s analysis shared last month, during May-March (2022-23), the India-UAE CEPA has surpassed almost all other free trade agreements in terms of utilisation. The number of certificates of origin has been the highest in the case of India-ASEAN FTA at 149,000. This was followed by the trade deal with the UAE as 54,142 certificates of origin were issued to exporters to avail concessional duty advantage under the trade pact.

A Rajasthan-based trade body has urged Prime Mini­ster Narendra Modi to provide 50 new agro-processing clusters to the state. 

 

Agric­ulture & allied sectors contribute around 25 per cent to the state’s gross domestic product. 

 

Prem Biyani, the executive president of Akhil Rajya Trade & Industry Association (Rajasthan), said the setting up of these food processing clusters would help the state export quality products along with consumption in the local markets. 

 

Biyani said this would ensure that farmers get better prices for their produce because agriculture products purchased at support prices by the government would flow to these units, and this awould also reduce the economic burden on the government. 

 

The state has in place an agro-processing, agri-business, and agri-export promotion policy, which offers sops and concessions such as capital subsidies, subsidies on the freight for export of ordinary and organic produce, and interest subsidies for agro-processing units and for agro-processing infrastructure projects. 

 

Besides, a package of general financial incentives (exemptions and subsidies) is available for agro-processing, agri-business, and agri-export units. 

 

Rajasthan contributes 42 per cent of the country's total bajra production, according to statistics. Similarly, it contributes 45 per to mustard, 22 per cent to oilseeds, 17 per to sesame, 19 per cent to groundnut, 20 per to chana, 13 per to jawar, and 85 per to guar. 

 

In the fiscal year 2021–22, the total production of fruits was 956,000  tonnes, while that of vegetables stood at 2.37 million tonnes, spices (1.04 mt), food grains and pulses (25.4 mt) and oilseeds (10 mt).   

 

The Centre on Tuesday said it has removed the procurement ceiling of 40 per cent on three pulses -- tur, urad and masur -- under the price support scheme (PSS) for the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) to enhance domestic production. The Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry said farmers are free to sell how much ever quantity of their production of tur, urad and masur under the PSS this year.

 

'The assured procurement of these pulses by the government at remunerative prices will help motivate the farmers to enhance sowing area in respect of tur, urad and masur in the upcoming Kharif and Rabi sowing seasons in order to enhance the production,' the ministry said in a statement.

 

PSS is operationalised only when prices of agri-produce fall below the minimum support price (MSP).

 

The ministry has also directed state governments to ensure strict enforcement of stock limits on tur and urad and monitor their prices.

 

To check hoarding and price rise, the ministry on June 2 imposed stock limits on tur and urad. The stock limits have been made applicable to wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers, millers and importers.

 

It has also been made mandatory for these entities to declare their stock position on the portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs.

 

The ministry has directed the state governments to ensure strict enforcement of the limits in their respective states. As part of enforcement, the states have also been asked to monitor prices and stocks position by verifying with various warehouse operators.

 

Parallelly, the ministry has also asked Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and State Warehousing Corporations (SWCs) to provide the details about tur and urad held in their warehouses, the statement added.

 

The retail prices of tur and urad have come under pressure in view of a slight fall in domestic production during the 2022-23 crop year.

It was bought at an average price of $261.76 a tonne c&f, GFSA said.

 

The wheat with 12.5% protein content was sought for arrival between September and October in a series of Saudi ports.

 

The purchase was more than the 480,000 tonnes sought in the tender.

 

Traders had been hoping that Middle East importer buying interest would be sparked after US wheat futures hit 2-1/2 year lows last week.

 

The agency, previously called the Saudi Grains Organization (SAGO), was renamed in January as the General Food Security Authority.

 

In its previous reported tender on March 13, Saudi Arabia bought 1.043 million tonnes of wheat for July-August arrival.

Minister of Agriculture & Cooperation, Marketing and Food Processing Kakani Govardhan Reddy has said that the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) will be largely promoted in Andhra Pradesh on the lines of the Self Help Groups (SHGs) to help farmers get remunerative prices and explore opportunities in the domestic and export markets.

 

Mr. Govardhan Reddy inaugurated the day-long workshop on ‘Export opportunities for agricultural, horticultural and processed food products from Andhra Pradesh’ organised by the A.P. State Organic Products Certification Authority (APSOPCA), Guntur, and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), New Delhi, in Vijayawada on June 6 (Tuesday).

 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Govardhan Reddy said that Andhra Pradesh produces many varieties of horticulture and agriculture products in huge quantities, and remunerative price for the farmers was the most important aspect to be addressed.

 

'Through the FPOs, focus will be on achieving remunerative prices for the products. The FPOs will be promoted in a big way in the State so that the produce from small farmers is sourced by them on a large scale. The FPOs will trade the products in domestic and export markets,' he added.

 

He said the Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) certification by the State government would make agriculture more beneficial to the farmers as they would be able to export the products to about 100 countries.

 

Special Commissioner of Agriculture C. Hari Kiran said, for the first time, Andhra Pradesh was going to issue GAP certification to the farmers. He said farmers with GAP certification could export their produce to the European countries and the U.S. and get more profits. He said the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) trained 240 farmers from Andhra Pradesh in good agriculture practices, and they in turn trained 9,000 more farmers.

 

Commissioner of Horticulture S.S. Sreedhar said that Andhra Pradesh cultivates more than 135 varieties of agriculture and horticulture crops, and it was in the top three positions in many crops in the country.

 

He said so far the produce was being exported to the Middle East, South-East and South Asian countries, and we were unable to export to other countries due to high amount of pesticide residue in the produce. He said the GAP certification would help explore more opportunities, and Andhra Pradesh now had the permission to certify organic produce too.

 

A.P. State Seeds Development Corporation Ltd. Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sekhar Babu Geddam, APEDA member Polaiah Kolamgari, A.P. Food Processing Society CEO Sridhar Reddy, representatives of various FPOs, farmers and others were present.

 

India's palm oil imports sank to a 27-month low in May as buyers cancelled expensive cargoes of the edible oil and replaced them with cheaper soyoil and sunflower oil, six dealers told Reuters on Tuesday.

 

Palm oil imports by India fell to 441,000 tonnes last month, down 14% from 510,094 tonnes in April, according to average estimates from the dealers. May imports were the lowest since February 2021, the dealers added.

 

The drop in purchases by the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils could weigh on palm oil prices, which are already trading near their lowest level in 30 months.

 

India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia - the top two producers - and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.

 

Price-sensitive Asian buyers typically rely on palm oil because of the low cost and quick shipping times.

 

But the edible oil started trading at a premium to soyoil and sunflower oil over the past few months, prompting buyers to shift to the cheaper soft oils, said Sandeep Bajoria, CEO Sunvin Group, a vegetable oil brokerage and consultancy firm.

 

In April, buyers opted to cancel large amounts of palm oil purchases for May shipments for the first time in many years.

 

India's average monthly palm oil imports in the first six months of the 2022/23 marketing year that started on Nov. 1 were 818,203 tonnes, according to the Solvent Extractors' Association of India, up 52% from a year earlier. The trade body is likely to publish its May import data by mid-June.

 

India's sunflower oil imports in May jumped 28% from a month ago to 319,00 tonnes, while soyoil imports rose 10% to 290,000 tonnes, according to an average estimate from the dealers.

 

'Palm oil has been losing market share for the past few months and is unlikely to regain it unless it becomes competitive, said Rajesh Patel,' managing partner at GGN Research, an edible oil trader and broker.

A burgeoning market for nuts in India is beckoning the Australians, among the biggest growers of nuts in the world. India has largely kept them at bay, but the potential has proved too vast for the Australians to hold off their almonds, pistachios, and walnuts.

 

The nut industry in Australia is now pinning its hopes on the proposed India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) to gain faster and deeper market access in India through higher duty cuts and the removal of quotas.

 

'With rising economic conditions, the Indian middle class is driving greater consumption of nuts. The Indian CECA provides the Australian nut industries the opportunity to diversify our export markets and hedge for any complications with our major market, China,' says a representation made by the Australian Nut Industry Council (ANIC) to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

 

As part of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement ratified at the end of December 2022, India agreed to eliminate tariffs on macadamias, cashews in-shell, shelled pistachios, and hazelnuts over a period of six years and reduce tariffs by half for almonds subject to a quota of 34,000 tonnes.

 

‘Not enough’

But the Australian industry says it is not enough. They are pushing their agenda even more now that both sides are working on the full-fledged CECA, which could include previously excluded areas.

 

'India has no almond production. It cannot claim any sensitivity for almonds, so it is difficult to understand why any tariff should apply to Australian almonds or why there should be a quota,' their representation to CECA noted.

 

They questioned India’s decision to exclude pistachio in shell from the ECTA on grounds of 'sensitivity' from producers in Kashmir and Jammu. There isn’t any evidence of an Indian pistachio industry in Kashmir or Jammu other than a few trees mainly in old research stations, they argued. 

 

'In the next decade, Australia could not supply India with more than a few thousand tonnes per annum of pistachio inshell, compared with current Indian imports of more than 15,000 tonnes per annum. The few thousand tonnes will have a trivial impact on total Indian demand but will be of critical importance to the expanding Australian pistachio industry,' they said.

 

Conceding that India did have a long-established walnut growing industry, largely located in Kashmir and Jammu, the ANIC argued that production was being overstated by growers at 60,000 tonne per annum in shell, while other sources estimated production at 30,000–36,000 tonne. 'Australia has limited production of the sweeter-flavored Chandler variety (preferred by many Indian consumers over the older varieties grown in Kashmir/Jammu) and has a strong Australian demand, limiting the potential exports to India to below a number that could have any impact on Kashmiri sales,' it said.