Wheat sent to Afghanistan-Lebanon on G-2-G contracts
India has consistently maintained trade surplus in the agricultural products over the years, with 2019-20 exports of Rs.2.52 lakh crores against imports of Rs.1.47 lakh crores, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said on 21 April 2021.
Even, during the difficult time of Pandemic, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export. The export of Agri and allied commodities during April 2020 – Feb 2021 were Rs.2.74 lakh crore, an increase of 18.49% on Rs.2.31 crore in the same period last year.
The commodities which posted significant positive growth in exports were wheat, other cereals, rice (other than Basmati), soya meal, spices, sugar, raw cotton, fresh vegetable, processed vegetables, and alcoholic beverages etc.
Wheat and other cereals posted huge growth over last year, i.e., increasing from Rs.425 crore to Rs.3,283 crore and Rs.1,318 crore to Rs.4,542 crore, respectively.
On specific demand from countries, NAFED has exported 50,000 MT wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 MT wheat to Lebanon under G2G arrangement.
The ministry reported 727% growth in wheat and 132% growth in rice exports.
Non-Basmati rice exports increased from Rs.13,030 crores in 2019-20 to Rs.30,277 crores in 2020-21. This increase came in rice shipments to new markets namely, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico. Rice was also exported to Togo, Senegal, Malaysia, Madagascar, Iraq, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Vietnam, Tanzania Rep and Madagascar.
India also enhanced export of soya meals by 132% from Rs.3,087 crores in 2019-20 to Rs.7,224 crores in 2020-21.
Exports of spices increased 11.44% to Rs.26,257 crore from Rs.23,562 crore; growth 11.44%, Sugar 39.64% to Rs.17,072 crore from Rs.12,226 crore; Raw Cotton 67.96% to Rs.11,373 crore from Rs.6,771 crore; Fresh Vegetable 17.54% to Rs.4,780 crore from Rs.4,067 crore; and Processed Vegetables 42.69% to Rs.2,846 crore from Rs.1,994 crore.
The imports of Agri and allied commodities during April 2020 – Feb 2021 were Rs.141,034.25 crore as compared to Rs.137,014.39 crore in the same period last year witnessing a slight increase of 2.93%.
Despite COVID-19, balance of trade in agriculture has favorably increased during April 2020 – Feb 2021 to Rs.132,579.69 crore as against Rs.93,907.76 crore during the same period in 2019-20. #agriculture #exports #manufacturing #processing /fiinews.com
