Marketing: rice, tea, spices and dry fruits
Twenty-five Indian companies from food and agricultural products sector, exporting rice, tea, spices and dry fruits, will be meeting the major importers in Saudi Arabia during a Food and Agro Buyer-Seller Meet (BSM) on 11 Nov 2018.
The BSM is organised by Consulate General of India in Jeddah in association with Jeddah Chamber and Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI).
The four commodities have great prospects for furthering Indian exports to Saudi Arabia, which has been a major food and beverages (F&B) market for India.
The BSM will be an ideal platform for Indian participants to explore the business opportunities for trade, acquaint with new consumer trends and initiate marketing tie-ups and joint ventures.
Basmati continuously dominates India’s rice export basket. India accounts for around 72% of the total Basmati rice produced and it offers not just the leading producer tag but also very high product visibility in the world market.
Indian tea is among the finest in the world owing to strong geographical indicators, heavy investments in tea processing units, continuous innovation, augmented product mix and strategic market expansion.
India is the 2nd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of tea in the world with a 23% share in global production and a 7.5% share in world tea exports.
India exports tea to more than 60 countries globally with Iran, Russia, UK, USA and the Gulf countries being major markets.
Indian spices too are much in demand in the GCC countries, given their exquisite aroma, texture and taste. Saudi Arabia primarily imports pepper, chilli, turmeric, ginger and cardamom from India.
Saudi Arabia is India’s one of the most important trade partners and is a major FDI partner of India after the UAE in Gulf region.
India’s export to Saudi Arabia was US$5 billion in 2017.
The major products exported by India to Saudi Arabia were rice, chemicals, refined petroleum oil and motor vehicles and its parts.
India’s 2017 import from Saudi Arabia was US$21 billion, a huge trade deficit of US$16 billion. India’s major imports is Saudi petroleum products.
India is seeking to reduce the trade deficit by enhancing exports in areas where Saudi Arabia is importing from the world.
In 2017, India exported F&B products worth US$4.6 billion when its global exports of F&B products was US$33 billion. fiinews.com
