India’s agricultural and processed food exports hit $21.5 bn in Apr–Feb 2021-22

03 Apr 2022

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has exported agricultural and processed food products worth $21.5 billion, or about 90 per cent of the target for the fiscal year 2021-22, in the first 11 months of the current fiscal and looks set to achieve the annual export target of $23.71 billion.

This comes at a time when the country also achieved the ambitious target of $400 billion in merchandise exports, nine days ahead of schedule, in the current fiscal.

APEDA has a share of more than 5 per cent in this target of $400 billion of mercantile exports in the current fiscal.

“India set an ambitious target of $400 billion of goods exports and achieved this target for the first time ever. I congratulate our farmers, weavers, MSMEs, manufacturers, exporters for this success. This is a key milestone in our Aatmanirbhar Bharat journey,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated in a tweet.

Rice export, which is the highest foreign exchange earner in the APEDA basket, accounted for 91 per cent of the export volume, earning $8.67 billion – the highest ever achieved by APEDA so far. During April-February in the current fiscal, India exported rice worth $8.62 billion, while export of other cereals jumped to 105 per cent of the export target of $847 million.

In the fruits and vegetables category, against the export target of $3.05 billion till February, APEDA has achieved exports of $2.51 billion, which is 75 per cent of the total target.

Cereal preparations and miscellaneous processed items have been exported to the tune of $2.04 billion, which is 89 per cent of the export target of $2.10 billion till February in the current fiscal year, while the export of meat, dairy and products stood at $3.77 billion, which is 82 per cent of the $4.21 billion export target fixed till February 2022.

Wheat exports recorded a huge surge at $1.74 billion during April-January 2021-22, growing 387 per cent over the corresponding period in 2020-21 when it touched $358 million, while other cereals recorded a growth of 66 per cent by fetching $869 million during April-January 2021-22 over the corresponding period in 2020-21 when it touched $527 million.

Meat, dairy and poultry product exports grew over 13 per cent to $3.41 billion in April-January 2021-22 against $3.01 billion in the corresponding ten-month period of 2020-21. Fruits and vegetables exports were up 16 per cent at $1.21 billion during April-January 2021-22, against $1.04 billion in April-January 2020-21, while processed fruits and vegetable exports were up 11 per cent at $1.27 billion during the first ten months of 2021-22 against $1.14 billion in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

For promoting exports of unique products during the year, APEDA organised series of flag off events where Geographical Identification (GI) certified Dahanu Gholvad Chikoo, Jalgaon Banana and Marathwada Kesar sourced from farmers in Maharashtra were exported for the first time. APEDA akso facilitated the first consignment of Leteku (Burmese Grape), a fruit rich in vitamin C and Iron, from Guwahati airport to Dubai, besides the fresh jackfruit from Tripura to UK and Germany through Guwahati.

The first consignment of fresh ‘Raja Mircha’ also referred to as king chilli was exported from Nagaland to London and Honey was exported for the first time from Assam to Dubai. The first consignment of GI tagged Nendran banana from Kerala to Singapore and the value added products from Jackfruit and Passion fruit were exported to New Zealand. APEDA also facilitated the first consignment of GI tagged Vazhakulam Pineapple to Dubai and Sharjah and GI tagged Marayoor Jaggery from Marayoor, Idukki, Kerala to Dubai.

For the first time APEDA facilitated exports of banana from Lakhimpur, UP to Iran and five traditional varieties of rice from Gujarat - Gujarat 17 Rice (Jeerasar/Jeera Samba), Surti Kolam Rice, Ambemohar Rice, Kali Mooch Rice and Indrayani Rice was exported to the United Kingdom.

APEDA also supported exports of Himalayan Millets (Organic Barnyard, Finger Millets and Amaranthus) to Vietnam for the first time from Uttarakhand and shipment of puffed rice sourced from Cuttack, Odisha has been exported to Malaysia via Vizag seaport.

“We continue to provide assistance to exporters based on clusters approach in collaboration with state governments while taking into consideration objective of Agriculture Export Policy, 2018,” M Angamuthu, chairman, APEDA, said.

APEDA has been collaborating with 28 states and 4 union territories over the last couple of years for implementation of agriculture export policy aimed at boosting agri-exports.

Towards this, nodal agencies, nodal officers and state level monitoring committees have been formed in 26 states and 4 UTs.

Twenty-two states and 2 UTs (Ladakh/ A&N Islands) have finalised the state specific Agri Export Action Plan, viz, Maharashtra, UP, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, MP, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Goa.

APEDA has notified 38 Cluster level committees in several cluster districts across the states. Export of horticulture produce has taken place from the clusters of Anantapur (Banana), Theni (Banana), Nagpur (Orange), Nashik (Grapes), Chikaballapura (Rose Onion).

To give impetus to the export of potential products as well as to remove the bottlenecks in the supply chain, APEDA created Export Promotion Forums (EPFs) with representatives from the departments of commerce, agriculture, state governments, national referral laboratories and top 10 leading exporters of each product for Grapes, Onions, Mango, Banana, Rice, Dairy Products, Pomegranate, Floriculture and Nutri Cereals.

Accreditation/Compliance/Enforcement Under National Programme for Organic Production

Export of organic products during April-February 2022 topped $700 million, with exports mainly to USA, EU, Canada, Switzerland and Great Britain.

In order to promote the exports of GI products, as emphasised by the prime minister, two V-BSMs have been organised with the embassies of UAE and USA.

APEDA officials have participated in several district level meetings for deliberation and promotion of GI registered products like Banganpalli mango in Andhra Pradesh, Govindbhog rice in West Bengal, Black rice in Manipur, Assam ginger etc.

An exclusive new section for GI products has been created in the APEDA portal and 112 GI registered agriproducts have been identified.

Development of traceability system for GI products has been initiated.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

Besides APEDA has signed MoUs with ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute (ICAR-CCRI), Nagpur, Maharashtra, Jawahar Lal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Srinagar on mutual areas of cooperation for enhancing exports.

The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been largely due to the various initiatives taken by APEDA such as organising B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product specific and general marketing campaigns by active involvement of Indian Embassies.

APEDA also assists in upgradation and strengthening of recognised laboratories for export testing and residue monitoring plans. APEDA also provides assistance under the financial assistance schemes of infrastructure development, quality improvement and market development for boosting export of agricultural products.

APEDA organises participation of exporters in the International Trade Fairs, which provides a platform to the exporters to market their food products in the global marketplace. APEDA also organises national events like AAHAR, Organic World Congress, BioFach India etc to promote agri-exports.

In order to ensure seamless quality certification of products to be exported, APEDA has recognised 220 labs across India to provide services of testing to a wide range of products to exporters.