India’s Agriculture Exports touch a historic high of $50 bn.
The agriculture sector in India is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s population. As per the provisional figures released by DGCI&S, the agricultural exports have grown by 19.92% during 2021-22 to touch $50.21 bn. The growth rate is remarkable as it is over and above the growth of 17.66% at $41.87 bn achieved in 2020-21 and has been achieved in spite of unprecedented logistical challenges in the form of high freight rates, container shortages, etc. Record production is estimated for rice, maize, pulses, oilseeds, gram, rapeseed, mustard, and sugarcane.
Department of Commerce has brought out a comprehensive “Agriculture Export Policy” aimed at doubling the agricultural exports and integrating Indian farmers and agricultural products with the global value chains. The Agriculture Export Policy has the following vision.
“Harness export potential of Indian agriculture, through suitable policy instruments, to make India global power in agriculture and raise farmers’ income.”
The agriculture sector in India has experienced buoyant growth in the past two years. The sector, which is the largest employer of workforce within the country, accounted for a sizeable 18.8% (2021- 22) in GVA of the country registering a growth of 3.6% in 2020-21 and 3.9% in 2021-22.
The oilseed production in India has grown by almost 23.9% from 2016-17 to 2021-22. India is projected to maintain a high per capita vegetable oil consumption growth of 2.6% per annum reaching 14 kg/capita by 2030 necessitating a high import growth of 3.4% per annum.
India is the world’s largest producer of cotton and cotton is one of the country’s most important commercial crops cultivated and accounts for around 25 % of the global cotton production. Due to economic importance in India it is also termed as “White-Gold’.’
Sugar and sugarcane industry in India is the second largest Agro-based industry, in the country only next to cotton. Export of sugar in sugar season 2021-22 is 15 times that of 2017-18. Contracts for export of about 90 LMT have been signed to export sugar in current sugar season FY'22 out of which 75 LMT were exported until May'22.
The export of spices contributes 41% of the total export earnings from all horticulture crops in the country and it ranks fourth among agricultural commodities.Spices production in the Country grew from 67.64 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 106.79 lakh tonnes in FY 21 with an annual growth rate 7.9%. Export of spices recorded an annual growth rate of 9.8% in terms of volume and 10.5% in terms of value in FY 21.
The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been largely due to the various initiatives taken by Centre through APEDA such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product specific and general marketing campaigns by active involvement of Indian Embassies.
The government organized more than 300 outreach programmes in collaboration with state governments for enhancing the exports of agricultural produce. During 2020-21, 9432 Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) were established under the SMAM scheme.