India's farm and processed food products exports rise to $20.6 billion

New Delhi: Exports of India's agricultural and processed food products rose to $20.67 billion in 2020-21 from $16.7 billion in the previous year, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Friday.

Non-Basmati rice has emerged as India's top export item among the many agricultural and processed food product exports under Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) basket, contributing close to one-fourth of the total exports in 2020-21.

Top three products in the APEDA export basket in 2020-21 were Non-Basmati Rice (23.22 per cent share), Basmati Rice (19.44 per cent) and Buffalo Meat (15.34 per cent) and these products together account for 58 per cent of total shipments, according to data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S).
Benin, Nepal, Bangladesh, Senegal and Togo were the top importers of Non-Basmati Rice from India in 2020-21.

Major export destinations for Basmati Rice in 2020-21 were Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen and United Arab Emirates. For Buffalo Meat exports, the top importing nations were Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Egypt and Indonesia.

"We continue to focus on creating infrastructure for boosting exports by focusing on clusters in collaboration with state governments while taking into consideration aim of Agriculture Export Policy, 2018," said M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA.

India's share in world agricultural exports stood at 2.1 per cent in 2019, moving up from 1.71 per cent in 2010. However, India's rank in worldwide agricultural exports slipped to 16 in 2019 from 17 in 2010, according to data released by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In terms of share of top ten products exports under APEDA basket, there has not been much change in the last one decade even as India's exports reached more countries across the world.

The top ten APEDA exports in share terms in 2020-21 were Non-Basmati Rice (23.22 per cent), Basmati Rice (19.44 per cent), Buffalo Meat (15.34 per cent), Miscellaneous Preparations (3.84 per cent), Groundnuts (3.52 per cent), Cereal Preparations (3.08 per cent), Maize (3.07 per cent), Wheat (2.66 per cent), Processed Vegetables (2.43 per cent), Processed Fruits, Juices & Nuts (2.07 per cent) and Cashew Kernels (2.03 per cent).