India’s export of agri and allied commodities during Apr 2020- Feb 2021 were Rs. 2.74 lakh Crores as compared to Rs. 2.31 Crore in the same period last year, indicating an increase of 18.49%.
Stating this on Wednesday, April 21, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare added that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, India did not disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export.
India’s agricultural and allied exports during 2019-20 were Rs. 2.52 lakh Crores and imports were Rs. 1.47 lakh Crores.
India has consistently maintained trade surplus in agricultural products over the years, said the ministry.
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The commodities which posted significant positive growth in exports were wheat, other cereals, rice (other than Basmati), soya meal, spices, sugar, raw cotton, fresh vegetable, processed vegetables, alcoholic beverages, etc.
Compared to last year, wheat and other cereals posted a growth from Rs. 425 Crores to Rs. 3,283 Crores and Rs. 1,318 Crores to Rs. 4,542 Crores, respectively.
On specific demand from countries, NAFED has exported 50,000 MT wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 MT wheat to Lebanon under G2G arrangement. India has witnessed a tremendous growth of 727% in wheat export.
The country has witnessed significant growth of 132% in export of (non-Basmati) rice. Export of non-Basmati rice has gone up from Rs 13,030 Crores in 2019-20 to Rs 30,277 Crores in 2020-21.
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Various factors have resulted in this increase in exports. The main reason being that India has successfully built new markets in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico. Exports were also made to Togo, Senegal, Malaysia, Madagascar, Iraq, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Vietnam, Tanzania Rep and Madagascar.
India also enhanced export of soya meals by 132%. Soya meal has gone up from Rs. 3,087 Crores in 2019-20 to Rs. 7,224 Crores in 2020-21.
Other commodities of Agri & Allied basket witnessing significant increase in export during April 2020 to February 2021 as compared to corresponding period during 2019-20 have been spices (Rs. 26,257 Crores from Rs. 23,562 Crores, with 11.44% growth), sugar (Rs. 17,072 Crores against Rs. 12,226 Crores – growth 39.64%), raw cotton (Rs. 11,373 Crores from Rs. 6,771 Crores – growth 67.96%), fresh vegetable (Rs. 4,780 Crores over Rs. 4,067 Crores – growth 17.54%) and processed vegetables (Rs. 2,846 Crores against Rs. 1,994 Crores – growth 42.69%).
Imports of Agri and Allied commodities during April 2020 – Feb 2021 were Rs. 1,41,034.25 Crores as compared to Rs. 1,37,014.39 Crores in the same period last year witnessing a slight increase of 2.93%.
Despite COVID-19, balance of trade in agriculture has favourably increased during April 2020 – Feb 2021 to Rs. 1,32,579.69 Crores as against Rs. 93,907.76 Crores during the same period in 2019-20.
