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New Delhi : India has consistently maintained trade surplus in the agricultural products over the years. India’s agricultural and allied exports during 2019-20 were Rs 2.52 lakh Crore and imports were Rs 1.47 lakh Crore. Even, during the difficult time of Pandemic, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export. The export of Agri and allied commodities during April, 2020 – February,2021 were Rs 2.74 lakh Crore as compared to Rs. 2.31 Crore in the same period last year indicating an increase of 18.49%.
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, and Alcoholic Beverages etc.
Wheat and other cereals posted huge growth over last year, i.e., increasing from Rs 425 Crore to Rs 3,283 Crore and Rs 1,318 Crore to Rs 4,542 Crore, 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 tremendous growth of 727 % in Wheat export, according to a PIB release.
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 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 30,277 crore in 2020-21. This increase in exports is on account of multiple factors, mainly being India capturing new markets namely, 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, were Spices (Rs 26,257 crore vs Rs 23,562 crore; growth 11.44%), Sugar (Rs 17,072 crore vs Rs 12,226 crore; growth 39.64%), Raw Cotton (Rs 11,373 crore vs Rs 6,771 crore; growth 67.96%), Fresh Vegetable (Rs4,780 crore vs Rs 4,067 crore; growth 17.54%), and Processed Vegetables (Rs 2,846 crore vs Rs 1994 crore; growth 42.69%) etc.
The imports of Agri and allied commodities during April, 2020 – February, 2021 were Rs 1,41,034.25 Crore as compared to Rs 1,37,014.39 Crore in the same period last year witnessing a slight increase of 2.93%.
Despite COVID-19, balance of trade in agriculture has favorably increased during April, 2020 – February, 2021 to Rs 1,32,579.69 Crore as against Rs 93,907.76 Crore during the same period in 2019-20.