Bangladesh emerged as the top destination of wheat exports from India, having the largest share of more than 54 percent in both volume and value terms in the financial year 2020-21, according to Commerce Ministry data released today.

 

India exported 11,57,399.35 tonnes of wheat worth USD 299.4 million to Bangladesh in 2020-21 constituting 55.4 percent in terms of total volume of India's total wheat exports and 54.5 percent in value terms, reports our New Delhi correspondent citing Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS)data.

 

Apart from Bangladesh, the other top nine importing countries of Indian wheat in 2020-21 are Nepal, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, Indonesia, Oman, and Malaysia.

 

In 2020-21, India entered new wheat markets like Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, and Indonesia.

 

According to DGCIS data, the top ten countries, which accounted for more than 94 percent of India's wheat exports in 2016-17, now have 99 percent share in exports in 2020-21 in both volume and value terms.

 

In the first seven months (April-October) of the current financial year (2021-22), India's wheat exports in terms of volume rose by more than 527 percent to 3.2 million tonnes from 0.51 million tonnes reported during April-October period of 2020-21, said the official data.

 

In terms of value, India's wheat exports in the current fiscal (April – October) rose by 546 percent to USD 872 million from USD 135 million reported during the same period of the previous fiscal.

 

In the current financial year (2021-22), India's wheat exports is expected to achieve an all-time high as it has already surpassed the shipment achieved during 2020-21.

 

India's wheat exports have witnessed a 48.56 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) during 2016-2020. The country's wheat exports touched USD 243 million in 2020 against USD 50 million in 2016, according to ITC Trade Map, 2021 data.

 

The rise in India's wheat exports has been achieved because of the Agricultural Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) taking up various initiatives such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets and initiating marketing campaigns with active involvement of Indian Embassies.

 

“We are giving thrust on building infrastructure in the value chain for giving boosts to cereal exports in collaboration with the state governments and other stakeholders such as exporters, farmer producer organizations, transporters, etc,” M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, said.

 

India accounts for less than one percent in world wheat export. However, its share has increased from 0.14 percent in 2016 to 0.54 percent in 2020.

 

India is the second largest producer of wheat with a share of around 13.53 percent of world total production and produces around 107.59 million tonnes of wheat annually with a major chunk of it catering to domestic consumption.

The World Bank has retained India's economic growth forecast for the current fiscal at 8.3 per cent as the recovery is yet to become broad-based.

 

As per the first advanced estimates of the national income released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) last week, the economy is projected to grow at 9.2 per cent in 2021-22, surpassing pre-COVID level in actual terms, mainly on account of improved performance, especially in farm, mining and manufacturing sectors.

 

'India's economy is expected to expand by 8.3 per cent in fiscal year 2021/22 (ending March 2022), unchanged from last June's forecast as the recovery is yet to become broad-based.

 

'The economy should benefit from the resumption of contact-intensive services, and ongoing but narrowing monetary and fiscal policy support,' the World Bank said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report released on Tuesday.

 

Further, the report said that growth forecast has been upgraded for 2022-23 and 2023-24 to 8.7 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively. The upward revision reflects an improving investment outlook with private investment, particularly manufacturing, benefiting from the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, and increases in infrastructure investment.

 

'The growth outlook will also be supported by ongoing structural reforms, a better than-expected financial sector recovery, and measures to resolve financial sector challenges despite ongoing risks,' the report said.

 

It also noted that consumer inflation in the major economies of South Asia has been above central banks' targets since late 2019.

 

In India, easing supply disruptions related to COVID and deficient demand contributed to a return of inflation toward the mid-point of the 2-6 per cent target range since mid-2021. Core inflation, however, remains at the upper end of the target range.

 

The report said that following the major setback to health and economic activity caused by the mid-2021 second wave of COVID in South Asia, economic activity has recovered.

 

New cases of COVID stabilised at lower levels last year but are again accelerating in parts of the region as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly in early 2022.

 

In India, the economic damage caused by the second wave has already been unwound with output effectively back to levels reached prior to the pandemic (2019 Q4) as COVID cases and restrictions subsided, it added.

 

As per the Global Economic Prospects report, following a strong rebound in 2021, the global economy is entering a pronounced slowdown amid fresh threats from COVID variants and a rise in inflation, debt, and income inequality that could endanger the recovery in emerging and developing economies.

 

Global growth is expected to decelerate markedly from 5.5 per cent in 2021 to 4.1 per cent in 2022 and 3.2 per cent in 2023 as pent-up demand dissipates and as fiscal and monetary support is unwound across the world.

Sri Lanka’s cabinet of minister has approved the import of 300,000 metric tonnes of rice to increase the supply, a government statement said, with crop losses expected due to the use of organic fertilizer.

 

The Minister of Trade had been given approval to import 200,000 metric tonnes of Nadu type rice (parboiled) and 100,000 tonnes of GR11 short grain rice.

 

GR11 is a substitute for Samba, the statement said.

 

The cabinet had earlier approved the import of 100,000 metric tonnes of rice.

 

These rice will be imported from India, cabinet spokesman Minister Ramesh Pathirana said.

 

Rice prices have moved up and imports are to stabilize prices, he said.

 

Stat-run Sathosa and some private traders have been allowed to import rice, Minister Pathirana said.

 

At least 30,000 metric tonnes had been imported from Myanmar.

 

Sri Lanka has restricted the import of rice which has allowed millers to drive up prices.

 

However in the Maha season, where harvesting begins from around February, crop losses are expected due to a ban on chemical fertilizer and agro-chemical import.

The Union government has secured the approval of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for export of Indian mangoes to the USA in the new season. The export of Indian mangoes has been restricted by the USA since 2020 as USDA inspectors were unable to visit India due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

The USDA’s approval would pave the way for exports from traditional mango production belts such as Andhra Pradesh.

 

While several countries import mangoes based on the certification given by the phytosanitary inspectors of Andhra Pradesh, countries like the USA and South Korea deploy their own inspectors to India to certify the mango consignments.

 

According to industry sources, traders export about 10,000 tonnes of mangoes from Andhra Pradesh to various countries every year. But the official estimates put this figure at about 2,000 tonnes. The difference in the numbers stems from the fact that the traders, after procuring mangoes from the state, export them from international flights and ports in other states like Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, etc.

 

Additional director, department of horticulture, M Venkateswarulu, said that irradiation treatment is a must to export mangoes to the USA. 'Vapour heat treatment is required to export mangoes to countries like South Korea and Japan. Andhra Pradesh has two VHT facilities in Tirupati and Nuzvid out of the four such facilities in the country. The export norms vary from country to country. For instance, several Middle East countries import mangoes certified by the state’s phytosanitary inspectors. But it is different for countries like the USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, etc.' said Venkateswarlu.

 

The additional director added that Andhra Pradesh horticulture department has eight phytosanitary inspectors. 'Processes like irradiation are aimed at eliminating the live pest, fungus or disease in the mangoes. The state horticulture department is conducting training programmes for the farmers, in association with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, to enable them to utilise export opportunities in overseas markets. Banganapalli, Suvarnarekha, Alphonso and Collector are the most exported mango varieties from the state. The horticulture department is working towards increasing the mango exports from the state,' said M Venkateswarulu.

 

Industry sources said that lack of international cargo and relatedinfrastructural facilities at the airports of the state is hampering the direct export opportunities from the state. The traders have to rely on shipping ports and airports in other states. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh has 12 pack houses for horticulture crops. But these also reportedly lack connecting facilities to improve the export scenario of the state.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) said on Wednesday that it will seek 80,000 tonnes of feed wheat and 100,000 tonnes of feed barley to be loaded by Feb. 15 and arrive in Japan by March 17, via a simultaneous buy and sell (SBS) auction that will be held on Jan. 19.

 

Japan buys and sells its feed wheat and barley via so-called SBS auctions, in which end-users and importers specify the origin, price and quantity of grain, allowing millers to meet their varied needs for the feed grain.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday met U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan in New Delhi for the formal launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement.

 

Both sides will hold deliberations over an array of trade opportunities of mutual interest, benefiting India and the U.K.

 

“Met with U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade @AnnieTrev for the launch of India-UK Free Trade Agreement Negotiations,” Mr. Goyal said in a tweet.

 

This agreement is aimed at liberalising norms and reducing customs duties to boost trade in goods and services, besides promoting investments.

 

India’s exports to the U.K. stood at $8.15 billion in 2020-21, while imports aggregated at $4.95 billion.

 

India’s main exports to the U.K. include ready-made garments and textiles, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, petroleum products, transport equipment, spices, pharmaceuticals and marine products.

 

Imports from Britain include precious and semi-precious stones, ores and metal scraps, engineering goods, chemicals and machinery.

 

In the services sector, the U.K. is the largest market in Europe for Indian IT services.

An intense focus on securing market access abroad and promoting Indian goods saw dozens of new products including Himachali millets and Chandauli’s black rice being shipped from India to several new destinations such as the UAE, and Denmark

 

Agricultural laborer in Maharashtra.

 

India’s agriculture and allied exports grew at a brisk 21 percent in the first eight months of the current financial year despite broken supply chains and various challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Exports were boosted by increased access to markets in the United States, European Union and the United Arab Emirates, and targeted efforts by the government to expand the global reach of processed food from India.

 

Commerce ministry data shows that exports of farm produce, both processed and unprocessed, climbed to $29.51 billion between April and November 2021. The government expects total exports from the sector to rise to $43 billion by March 2022.

 

The growth in farm produce exports was led by a sharp rise in the exports of non-basmati rice, other cereals, dairy items and sugar, all of which grew by at least 40 percent in the April-November period of 2021-22.

 

Data showed that while the global commodity supercycle played a part in raising the prices of non-food products such as tea, cotton and rubber, prices of food products have remained stable.

 

The vast majority of food exports showed growth in the volume of outbound shipments in tandem with higher foreign exchange earnings. This was especially true for the top three products in the agri export basket in the current financial year, namely non-basmati rice (46 percent growth), buffalo meat (6.5 percent) and sugar (39.8 percent).

 

Broad-based growth

 

A deep dive into the data shows that the latest growth has been broad-based. According to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which tracks non-plantation crops, the export basket stood at $13.1 billion in just the first seven months of the current fiscal. The figure was $20.6 billion for the full 2020-21 financial year, which had gone up from $16.4 billion in 2019-20.

 

'Plantation crops like rubber and tea have well-established trading chains and are heavily invested in. But to build up global demand for products like spices, dairy, and vegetables and fruits requires coordinated efforts to open foreign markets for Indian goods. It is also crucial to promote them extensively and bring together both domestic and foreign industries. All this has been done in the past three years, and the results are now coming in,' said a senior APEDA official.

 

Exports of spices like ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric and saffron, which have known therapeutic qualities, have also grown substantially. Meanwhile, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) said that shrimp and prawn exports have already reached 88 percent of the total export value of last year.

 

A range of new products has also been shipped abroad for the first time in FY22. These include fresh vegetables and mangoes from Varanasi, black rice from Chandauli, oranges from Nagpur, banana from Theni, bhoot jolokia chilli from Nagaland, red rice from Assam and millets from Himachal Pradesh, among others.

 

The government has also significantly pushed exports of processed items such as honey, cocoa, fruit jams, and wine in which India hasn’t shared global expertise till now.

 

India has now become the ninth-largest honey exporter in the world, shipping out 7.36 lakh tonnes in the previous financial year with the US as the largest buyer at 80 percent.

 

'We are working in close collaboration with the state governments, farmers, and other stakeholders in the value chain to boost exports to other countries and regions such as the United Kingdom, European Union, and Southeast Asia. India is also renegotiating the duty structure imposed by various countries for boosting honey exports,' the APEDA official added.

 

The commerce department has also focused its efforts on parts of the country that have hitherto lagged behind, such as the landlocked Purvanchal region in Uttar Pradesh, which is now home to the Varanasi Agri-Export Hub.

 

Challenges remain

 

However, agri exports have continued to face logistics hurdles, especially the global shortage of containers. As the number of available containers plummeted, the average prices of shipments skyrocketed, leading to many overseas buyers canceling orders.

 

'The lack of refrigerated containers has pushed up freight charges to unsustainable levels, whereby the freight costs have become more than production value,' said Ajay Sahai, director-general and chief executive officer of Federation of Indian Export Organisations. This has particularly hit India’s seafood exports, which rest heavily on shipments of fish and prawn to European and West Asian markets.

 

Despite the government’s aim of boosting agri exports, the sector has seen growth in fits and starts, often outright contracting. In fact, non-plantation crop exports had been to the tune of $17.3 billion a decade ago in 2011-12, compared to $13 billion currently.

 

Low recall value for Indian products has also plagued the sector. Now, products with registered geographical indications (GI) have been specifically promoted by organising virtual buyer-seller meets with the UAE, the US and other nations. To ensure seamless quality certification of products to be exported, APEDA has recognised 220 laboratories across the country to provide testing services to a wide range of products.

 

Room for growth

 

India’s share in world agricultural exports stood at 2.1 percent in 2019, moving up from 1.71 percent in 2010. However, India’s rank in worldwide agricultural exports only crept up to 16 in 2019 from 17 in 2010, according to data released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

 

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), India is the largest producer of pulses (25 percent of global production), milk, and jute.

 

It is also the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, and groundnuts, as well as the second-largest fruit and vegetable producer, accounting for 10.9 percent and 8.6 percent of the world's fruit and vegetable production, respectively.

 

Interestingly, India also had the world’s largest cattle population as of 2019. According to the National Dairy Development Board, the total bovine population, including adult cows and buffaloes, stood at 302.2 million as of 2021. This makes the country’s cattle population even larger than that of Brazil, which has the largest mega ranches in the world, and the open cattle pens of western US. India is also home to 535 million livestock, mostly goats and sheep.

 

Now, rising income levels from agriculture have led to more investments in the sector and a stabilisation of the workforce. The agriculture ministry estimates that agriculture and allied sectors employed more than 50 percent of the Indian workforce. The percentage share of gross value added of agriculture and allied sector to India’s total economy stood at 20.2 percent in 2020-21, up from 18.4 percent in the previous year.

 

Subhayan Chakraborty has been regularly reporting on international trade, diplomacy and foreign policy, for the past 6 years. He has also extensively covered evolving industry and government issues. He was earlier with Business Standard newspaper.India reaps high growth from agriculture, allied products in FY22.

 

An intense focus on securing market access abroad and promoting Indian goods saw dozens of new products including Himachali millets and Chandauli’s black rice being shipped from India to several new destinations such as the UAE, and Denmark

 

 

Iranian state agency the Government Trading Corporation (GTC) has issued an international tender to purchase about 60,000 tonnes of milling wheat, European traders said on Wednesday.

 

The deadline for the submission of price offers in the tender is also Wednesday, Jan. 12.

 

Volumes in Iran’s tenders are nominal and the country regularly buys more than the original tonnage sought.

 

Traders said Iran last week purchased about four shipments of wheat each of about 60,000 tonnes likely to be sourced from Germany or Russia and the Black Sea region, traders said.

 

The new tender seeks shipment in February/March.

 

Iran has been a regular wheat buyer in recent months with about 740,000 tonnes also bought in December.

 

Iran needs to import around 8 million tonnes of wheat after its crop was damaged by the worst drought in 50 years, Reuters reported in October.

 

But western sanctions on Iran continue to make payment difficult, traders said.

India has secured approval of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the export of domestic mangoes to America in the new season, the commerce ministry said on Tuesday.

 

The export of Indian mangoes has been restricted by the US since 2020 as the USDA inspectors were unable to visit India for inspection of irradiation facilities due to restrictions imposed on international travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 23, 2021, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the USDA signed a framework agreement for implementing the agri-market access issues.

 

Under the agreement, India and the US will follow a joint protocol on irradiation for India's mango and pomegranate exports to the US and import of cherries and Alfalfa hay from America. The ministry said that a revised work plan has been worked out, including phase-wise transfer of oversight of pre clearance of Irradiation treatment to India as agreed upon between both countries. 'As part of the mutual agreement, India will be able to export mangoes to the USA in the mango season commencing with the Alphonso variety of mangoes by March onwards..

 

The central government has secured the approval of the USDA for export of Indian mangoes to the USA in the new season,' it noted. According to the ministry, India had exported 800 Metric Tonnes (MTs) of mangoes to the US in 2017-18 worth USD 2.75 million. Similarly, in 2018-19, 951 MT mangoes of USD 3.63 million were exported and 1,095 MT worth USD 4.35 million in 2019-20. 'As per estimates received from the exporters, the export of mangoes in 2022, may surpass the figures of 2019-20,' the ministry said.

 

The USDA approval would pave the way for exports from traditional mango production belts such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

 

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) said that this would also provide an opportunity for the export of other delicious varieties of mangoes from North and East India, such as Langra, Chausa, Dushehri, Fazli, etc from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.

Commerce Ministry hopes to achieve the $400-billion export target for 2021-22

 

India’s exports continued to grow steadily in the first week of January 2022, posting a 33.16 per cent increase (year-on-year) to $7.63 billion, per preliminary weekly data shared by the Commerce & Industry Ministry.

 

Exports, excluding petroleum, increased in this period by 24.97 per cent compared to the same period of 2020-21, indicating that export growth was experienced in a number of sectors.

 

In December 2021, exports recorded the highest ever monthly performance of $37.29 billion, posting a growth of 37 per cent over the same month of the previous fiscal. The top sectors were petroleum, gems & jewellery, engineering products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and textiles registering lead.

 

India’s imports, too, increased sharply by 38.06 per cent in December 2021 to $59.27 billion with trade deficit widening to $21.99 billion compared to $15.72 billion in December 2020.

 

Exports in the April-December 2021 period at $299.74 billion recorded a 48.85 per cent growth over exports in the same period of the previous fiscal.

 

The Commerce Ministry is positive about achieving the $400-billion export target set for 2021-22 although it is apprehensive that the fast spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus could lead to problems related to shipping and container availability.