Wheat exports grow by 727 percent, rice exports by 132 percent

NEW DELHI, 24 April 2021: 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 - Feb,2021 were INR 2.74 lakh Crore as compared to INR 2.31 Crore in the same period last year indicating an increase of 18.49 percent.

India has consistently maintained trade surplus in the agricultural products over the years. India’s agricultural and allied exports during 2019-20 were INR 2.52 lakh Crores and imports were INR 1.47 lakh Crores.

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 INR 425 Crore to INR 3283 Crore and INR 1318 Crore to INR 4542 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 percent for Wheat export.

Country has witnessed significant growth of 132 percent in export of (Non-Basmati) Rice. Export of Non-Basmati Rice has gone up from INR 13,030 crores in 2019-20 to INR 30,277 crores 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 percent. Soya meal has gone up from INR 3087 crores in 2019-20 to INR 7224 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 (INR 26257 crore vs INR 23562 crore; growth 11.44 percent), Sugar (INR 17072 crore vs INR 12226 crore; growth 39.64 percent), Raw Cotton (INR 11373 crore vs INR 6771 crore; growth 67.96 percent), Fresh Vegetable (INR 4780 crore vs INR 4067 crore; growth 17.54 percent) and Processed Vegetables (INR 2846 crore vs INR 1994 crore; growth 42.69 percent) etc.

The imports of Agri and allied commodities during April, 2020 – Feb, 2021 were INR 141034.25 Crore as compared to INR 137014.39 Crore in the same period last year witnessing a slight increase of 2.93 percent.

Despite COVID-19, balance of trade in agriculture has favorably increased during April, 2020 – Feb, 2021 to INR 132,579.69 Crore as against INR 93,907.76 Crore during the same period in 2019-20.

Image credit: India-briefing.com