A sweet forecast. India’s fresh grape exports seen higher on ample supplies, good demand

India’s fresh grape exports for the financial year 2022-23 are seen higher both in volumes and value on good demand from Europe, the largest buyer and ample supplies.

This is despite a delayed start to the export season and adverse factors such as a hike in import duty by one of the large buyers Bangladesh and slower shipments to Russia due to the war situation, exporters said.

“The demand is good from Europe. We are expecting this year’s exports to touch the peak levels of 2019,” said Vilas Shinde, Chairman and Managing Director, Sahyadri Farmers Producer Company Ltd (Sahyadri Farms), a large exporter of fresh grapes.

All-time high

India’s grape exports had touched an all-time high of $335 million in 2018-19 but had declined in subsequent years to factors such as Covid-related lockdown and soaring freight rates triggered by global logistics challenges and a decline in output due to the inclement weather conditions.

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Though the export season was delayed by a fortnight this year and started in January’s third week due to the impact of unfavourable weather, the shipments have picked up and gained pace.

“The climate is clear now and is seen helping the production and productivity, unlike in the past three years when output suffered due to the bad weather. The only issue is shipments are not happening to Russia due to the war situation. Also, Bangladesh has increased the import duty to ₹53 a kg from ₹32, which is a bit of concern and may result in a decline in shipments of around 10-15 per cent to that country,” Shinde said.

Of the close to 2.4 lakh tonnes of fresh grapes exported from India, Europe accounts for over 1 lakh tonnes, followed by Bangladesh at around 60,000 tonnes. Other geographies including West Asia and Russia account for the rest.

As per the latest data from APEDA, India has shipped out grapes worth $69.65 million in the April-November period of the current financial year, an increase of 23 per cent over the same period last year. Being a short seasonal fruit, the bulk of the fresh grape shipments take place during the January-March period.

Positive growth expectations

Currently, India is the 11th largest exporter of grapes in the world and shipments have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 12.6 per cent in the last decade.

“This year will be good and positive for the grapes exports. We will do very well,” said M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA. “Because of our strong traceability system, upgraded with blockchain technology, we have managed to tap the high-value European market, which has given a boost to grape exports. APEDA is making efforts to penetrate new markets and intends to improve product diversification and value addition too,” Angamuthu added.

“Grapes exports are relatively okay compared to the last year. So far, the season has been good and we are expecting to ship out over 100 plus containers, around 1,500 tonnes,” said Pankaj Khandelwal, Chairman and Managing Director, INI Farms, which was acquired by agri-tech firm AgroStar. INI Farms exports around 100 containers of grapes annually, mainly to Europe.

Sahyadri’s Shinde said considering good demand and production this year, his organisation is expecting to clock a growth of 10-15 per cent in fresh grape shipments this year. Last year, Sahyadri shipped out around 1,100 containers, each carrying about 14 tonnes.

What the stats say

• India’s grape exports during 2021-22 stood at $305.7 million, a 2.6 per cent decline over the previous year’s $314 million.
• The top ten export destinations of grapes during 2021-22 were the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Russia, the UK, UAE, Germany, Nepal, Saudi Arab, Malaysia, and Thailand.
• As per the third advance estimate for 2021-22, grape production is seen higher at 3.47 million tonnes over 2020-21’s final estimates of 3.358 million tonnes.

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