Favourable policy support to drift agri commodity exports

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma says government committed to raise market share

April- January period India's agri exportshave recorded a steady growth in the last three years due to huge surplusavailability on bumper output coupled with supportive government policies toget rid of excessive stocks.

The trend is likely to continue on increased government'sfocus on promotion of agriculture commodities.India's exports of agricultural commodities have almost trebled in the last four years, data compiled by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Ministry of Commerce,showed.

Total exports of agricultural commodities shot up to Rs 174,194.01crore in the financial year 2012-13, a 192% rise from the level of Rs 59,723.66 crore in the financial year 2009-10. During this four-year period, owever, overall exports recorded 93% growth. Thus, the share ofagriculture commodities in India's overall exports basked jumped to 10.66% in FY 2012-13 from the level of 7.06% in 2009-10.

"We are committed foragricultural exports growth to continue in future as well with favourable longterm policy support," said Anand Sharma, Union Minister of Commerce andIndustry on the sidelines of BusinessStandard award function here on Saturday.During this period,Sharma re-defined the definition of basmati rice by incorporating the newvariety Pusa 1121 into this category.

Extreme promotional efforts in majorimporting countries made Pusa 1121 variety a preferred choice of basmati rice.Also, the union government introduced free trade agreement (FTA) with a numberof agriculture products deficient countries. Most importantly, the government allowedexports of foodgrains and other agricultural commodities on quota basis withimpeccable positive response.

Most recently, India allowed a limited quantity exportof pulses to Maldives when shipment to other countries is banned.As per World TradeOrganization (WTO), global export and import of agricultural and food products standsat US$ 1.66 trillion and US$ 1.82 trillion respectively of which India's share at 2.07% and 1.24% respectively. India has improved its positionin agricultural and food exports to 10th globally.

In recent years, thepolicy impetus by the government has provided much required stability to agriexports. Given sufficient stocks of foodgrains in the central pool, thegovernment has allowed exports of wheat. Also, efforts have been taken topromote horticulture exports from India.

"Though these measuresare in the right direction, a consistent long-term trade policy with tariff ina narrow band may be required for India to acquire international presence incommodities wherein it has comparative advantage," India's Economic Survey 2012-13 pointed out.

Sharma said that thegovernment is working on a long term policy for sustainable growth inagricultural commodities. India is currently world's largest rice exporter andvery close to the largest for wheat exports too.

The country has also attainedsignificant position in horticulture and other agri commodities' exports. Toachieve desired growth, however, India needs to change cropping pattern with larger focus on north India.

"The government musttake policy reforms to support growth in agricultural commodities. To achieve$70 billion export target in 2017 will not be tooambitious with possibility of policy implementation to increase productivity andpromote diversity of crops and specialized items to meet specific demandsabroad," said R S Rawat," Secretary General, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

For the financial year2013-14, the government has set an agri exports target of $45 bn as against $41billion achieved in the previous financial year. In the first 10 months of thecurrent financial year, however, India achieved 12.5% growth in theagri exports to 160425.86 crore this year versus Rs 140,954.78 crore in the same period last year.

“The growth momentum in India’s agriculture exports is expected to continue in coming few years with increased share of processed food including mango pulp, dried and preserved vegetables, meat and poultry items. Factors like reduced transaction costs time, better port gate management and fiscal incentives contributed to this upward trend. With continued focus on issues like food safety and compliance with international standards we surely can reach a new height,” said Piruz Khambatta, Chairman, CII National Committee on Food Processing & CMD, Rasna.

India’s burgeoning exports (Rs crore)
Financial year	Total exports	Agri exports	Agri share in overall exports (%)
2013-14*	1543793	160425.9	10.39
2012-13*	1324752	140954.8	10.64
2012-13	1634319	174194	10.66
2011-12	1465959	132760.7	9.06
2010-11	1142922	78854.31	6.9
2009-10	845533.6	59723.66	7.06
Source: DGCIS, * April – January period