Govt charts plan to boost exports of 20 ‘high potential’ agri products

The Centre is working on a strategy to boost exports of 20 ‘high potential’ agriculture products, including basmati rice, alcoholic beverages, honey, mango and banana.

An action plan on this will be ready in the next three months. The department of commerce and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) have started discussions on this with all stakeholders, including states, additional secretary at the department of commerce Rajesh Agarwal said. Currently, India's share in global exports is low.

Firming up such a plan will be crucial because India’s overall agriculture exports witnessed a contraction over the last one year. It was due to export restrictions on essential commodities, such as rice, wheat, sugar and onion.

Agricultural commodities have been facing the brunt of external factors, such as the Russia-ukraine war and Red Sea crisis. But any major impact of the Israel-iran conflict is yet to be seen.

India's share is about 2.5 per cent in global exports and the government wants to increase it to 4-5 per cent over the next few years. Worldwide imports of the 20 commodities were $405.24 billion in 2022, while India’s share stood at $9.03 billion. Countries that hold huge export potential for these items include the United States, Malaysia, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Japan, Italy, Belgium, and the UK.

An action plan will be ready in the next three months

Agri exports

India’s agriculture exports contracted 8.8 per cent to $43.7 billion during April-february (2023-24). It was mainly due to external factors such as the Red

Sea crisis, Russia-ukraine war, as well as domestic restrictions imposed on items like rice, wheat, sugar and onion.

An export ban and curbs on commodities like rice, wheat, sugar and onion hit agri exports by about $5-6 billion in the last financial year (FY24).

Exports of basmati rice increased from $4.2 billion in April-february 2022-23 to $5.2 billion in April-february 202324, up 22 per cent.

A senior government official said there has not been any visible impact of the Israel-iran war on exports as it is evolving,

“We are monitoring the situation. There are no major push backs as of now,” the official added.