India exporting cereals to newer destinations, says commerce ministry

India has started exporting cereals like rice and wheat to new destinations, including Puerto Rico, Yemen and Poland, with a view to push agricultural shipments, the commerce ministry said

India has started exporting cereals like rice and wheat to new destinations, including Puerto Rico, Yemen and Poland, with a view to push the country's agricultural shipments, the commerce ministry said on Monday.

India shipped non-basmati rice to nine countries, including Timor-Leste, Puerto Rico, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Eswatini, and Nicaragua, where exports were carried for the first time or earlier the shipment was smaller in volume.

The total volume of rice exports to these nine countries was 197 tonne in 2019-20 and it has increased to 1.53 lakh tonne in 2020-21.

Similarly, India exported a substantial quantity of grain to seven new countries - Yemen, Indonesia, Bhutan, Philippines, Iran, Cambodia and Myanmar during 2020-21.

"Wheat exports did not take place to these seven countries in 2018-19 and only 4 metric tonne of grain was exported in 2019-20. The volume of exports of wheat to these countries rose to 1.48 lakh tonne in 2020-21," it added.

In the case of exports of other cereals, excluding rice and wheat, India shipped those to newer destinations like Sudan, Poland, Bolivia, Colombia, Congo and Ghana in 2020-21.

"India's overall exports of cereals have seen a sharp spike in 2020-21 with the export of non-basmati rice growing by 136.04 per cent to USD 4,794.54 million; wheat by 774.17 per cent to USD 549.16 million; and other cereals (Millets, Maize and other coarse gains) by 238.28 per cent to USD 694.14 million," it added.