Removal of ban on shipments of non-basmati rice and wheat last year helped India emerge as a net exporter of agricultural commodities. Exports of agricultural products have more than doubled in the past three years, while imports have grown by about a third in the same period.
Besides, the surge in shipments of sugar, spices, coffee and tea has helped India boost its agri-exports in recent years. The agri-exports have grown from $10.56 billion in 2009-10 to $23.97 billion in 2011-12. In the same period, the import of various agri-products has grown from $10.70 billion to $14.27 billion.
Rice exports
Non-basmati rice exports have seen a significant jump to $1.72 billion in 2011-12 from $76 million in 2009-10. The Government opened up exports of non-basmati rice and wheat for private trade in September 2011.
Since then the non-basmati rice shipments surged to 3.9 million tonnes (mt) for the year-ended March 2012, helping India emerge as the largest exporter of rice.
The basmati shipments grew to 3.17 mt valued at $3.2 billion in 2011-12 against 2.37 mt valued at $2.49 billion in the previous year. The total rice shipments from India exceeded 7 million tonnes in 2011-12.
“The Government is taking steps to encourage exports of agriculture products including foodgrains through various measures and incentives under the Foreign Trade Policy,” the Minister of State for Commerce D. Purandeswari, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
“Incentives are granted after considering various factors including stocks of agriculture products available in the country, surplus over and above the buffer stock norm and the strategic reserve requirements, if any, the concerns of food security, availability to common man at reasonable prices and remunerative returns to the grower and price competitiveness in the international market,” she said.
Sugar exports
The exports of sugar have shot up from 44,746 tonnes in 2009-10 to over 2.74 million tonnes in 2011-12. The value of sugar exports stood at $1.83 billion in 2011-12 as against $1.19 billion in the previous year. In 2009-10, the sugar exports stood at a mere $23 million in value terms.
Coffee, tea, spices, groundnuts, guargum and wheat are the other agri-products that saw a significant jump in past three years. Coffee exports have more than doubled in the past three years to $952 million in 2011-12 from $429 million in 2009-10. Similarly, the export of export of spices doubled from $1.3 billion in 2009-10 to $2.75 billion in 2011-12.
Imports
Imports of agri-products into the country are mainly led by edible oils, pulses, cashew nuts, spices and fruits among others. The vegetable edible oils account for a large chunk of agri-imports and stood at $9.66 billion, up from $5.6 billion in 2009-10. The cashew imports have increased to $1.13 billion up from $639 million. The import of pulses has come down marginally from $2.07 billion in 2009-10 to $1.85 billion in 2011-12.
vishwanath.kulkarni@thehindu.co.in