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India’s agricultural exports rose remarkably despite COVID-19, may cross $50 bn in 21-22.
Mar 04, 2022

India's agriculture exports after reaching $43.23 billion in 2013-14, slumped to $33.68 billion in 2016-17. Despite the pandemic, a conspicuous turnaround occurred in these exports growing to $41.32 billion in 2020-21. This momentum is expected to continue in the current year as well and India’s agriculture exports can, for the first time, cross $50 billion in 2021-22. This year, the country is also expected to witness the highest ever exports of meat, marine products and rice, with around 50 percent share of rice exports in the world market.

While we have witnessed huge export growth in manufacturing and hi-tech sectors recently, the Government of India's consistent and concerted endeavours to usher in reforms for boosting agricultural exports have also been highly fruitful. The year 2020 started with the unprecedented global pandemic, which led to substantial increase in the global demand for food items. India has been able to step in through Indian missions abroad and interacted through virtual buyer-seller meets, removed many bottlenecks, coordinated with port/customs/State/district authorities, etc, to meet the increased global demand. All these efforts led to India emerging as a global supplier of food and other essential agricultural products.

Due to these efforts, exports of principal agriculture commodities have registered an increase of 17.56 percent to $41.32 billion, in 2020-21 vis-à-vis 2019-20. In 2020-21, India reached its highest ever export of $4 billion of spices and its products.

Similarly, during April 2021 to December 2021, the following commodities have shown significant increase in their export vis-à-vis April 2020 to December 2020: Non–Basmati Rice (46%), Coffee (43%), Wheat (416%), Other Cereals (72%), Cashew (16%), Sugar (61%), Fruits (28%), Dairy products (82%) and Marine products (35%).

Covid-19 emergency response cell created to help exporters in addressing their issues related to movement of consignments/trucks/labour, issuance of certificates, lab testing reports, sample collection, etc, ensured the real time clearance of exports.

The validity of various certifications/accreditations was extended beyond their dates of expiry. Timely and smooth issuance of certificate for export, health certificates and certificate of origin was done. An in-house platform for organising virtual trade fairs to establish contact between Indian exporters and importers was developed.

The Agriculture Export Policy was announced by the Government of India in 2018 with a focus on agriculture export-oriented production, export promotion, better farmer realisation and synchronisation with the policies and programmes of the Government of India. During the course of its implementation of AEP, considerable progress has been made in giving Farmer-Produce Organisations (FPOs) and farmers a stake in the export of their produce. It provided direct linkage of FPOs/farmers with the export market, which has not only improved farmers’ incomes but has also resulted in good farming practices.

Regular interaction was carried out with the states to propel them to include agricultural exports in their respective State Export Policy. The Department of Commerce, through APEDA, facilitated the state governments in finalising state/UT specific action plans for implementation of AEP in respective states/UTs. For the first time, an institutional mechanism for promoting agricultural exports has been set up in the states.

In order to provide direct export market linkage to farmers/FPOs and to encourage export-oriented production, 46 unique product-district clusters have been notified for export promotion. For the first time, the government has reached out directly at cluster and farm levels to give farmers a stake in export of their produce. The FPOs/farmers have been sensitised about requirements of export-oriented production. Agri-clusters have been activated by forming cluster-level committees, forming FPOs, connecting exporters to the FPOs, and sorting out the issues of transportation/ logistics/ pack houses, etc.

These clusters have been made operative with none or minimal additional investments by pooling the existing resources, with great success in clusters like Varanasi (fresh fruits and vegetables), Nagpur (orange), Ananthpur, Theni, Kolhapur, Solapur and Jalgaon, Surat, Narmada and Bharuch (Banana), Sangli, Nasik and Pune (Grapes), Nashik (Onion) and Solapur (Pomegranate).

A Farmer Connect Portal has been set up through APEDA for providing a platform for FPOs/FPCs, cooperatives to interact with exporters. Around 3,120 FPO/FPCs and 3,604 exporters have been registered in the portal. In order to ensure quality of exports and establish India as a reliable supplier of quality produce, traceability to the farm level is vital. A number of digital platforms, using technologies like blockchain, for traceability have been developed for enabling smooth flow of business and ensuring transparency in the system, such as HortiNet for mango, vegetables and citrus fruits, Basmati.net, TraceNet for organics, Peanut.net, farm registration app, Meat.net and Grapenet.

‘Transport and Marketing Assistance (TMA) for Specified Agriculture Products’ is a scheme for providing assistance for the international component of freight to mitigate the freight disadvantage for the export of agriculture products and assistance for the marketing of agricultural produce. This has enabled exporters to export from hitherto unexplored land-locked areas.

Specific products from the agriculture sector have been identified for exports.

Detailed analysis of SPS/TBT issues affecting these products has been carried out, for taking up the matter bilaterally with various importing countries. APEDA has also engaged with 60 Indian missions for preparing country-wise agri-export strategy.

APEDA interacted with the Indian missions and other stakeholders to identify the products, their potential and way forward for each country. The opportunities thus analysed have been shared with trade bodies and exporters so that they can avail the opportunity. A Market Intelligence Cell has been set up for dissemination of e-market intelligence reports comprising detailed market analysis.

Efforts are being made to expand India’s agri-export basket and promote export of products unique to India. Few examples include moringa, ethnic rice, millets, GI certified mango varieties, sapota, litchi, jackfruit powder/cubes, saffron/dry fruits, dragon fruits, etc.

In future, we may look forward to concerted efforts by multiple stakeholders including the various concerned ministries of the Government of India, farm organisations, food processing industries, other trade/policy organisations and technology startups to build structural transformations in the areas of post-harvest value addition and quality standards enhancements of agricultural produce to expand our global market performance to even higher levels.

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