India's farm exports likely to touch record $56-57 billion: Official

Agriculture exports are expected to touch a new record of $56-57 billion in the 2022-23 financial year, a senior commerce ministry official said on Friday.

“We reached $50 billion in FY22 and are confident of easily surpassing that to touch $56-57 billion in FY24 as except for cashew, all other components have done well,” the official said on the sidelines of a press event on Friday to mark the release of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).

The achievement will be commendable, given that exports of several high-value items, such as wheat and rice, have been banned during the financial year to control inflation.

Separately, senior industry officials said the latest guidelines on merchanting trade spelled out as part of the new FTP is expected to give a big boost to commodities trade from India, particularly for items such as wheat and cotton, etc.

“At present, some type of merchanting is permissible but the latest decision is meant to further ease it,” a senior industry official said. He said further details will be known once the reserve Bank of India (RBI) comes out with the rules.

Meanwhile, official statements showed exports of agricultural products (including marine and plantation) for 2021-22 touched $50 billion, which was the highest ever.

The growth rate of almost 20 per cent in FY22 was remarkable as it was over and above the growth of 17.66 per cent, at $41.87 billion, achieved in 2020-21, and was achieved in spite of unprecedented logistical challenges in the form of high freight rates, container shortages, etc.

In FY22, the country touched highest ever exports in staples such as rice ($9.65 billion), wheat ($2.19 billion), sugar ($4.6 billion) and other cereals ($1.08 billion). Wheat exports in FY22 recorded an unprecedented growth of more than 273 per cent, jumping nearly four-fold from $568 million in 2020-21 to touch close to $2119 million in 2021-22.

In FY22, India captured nearly 50 per cent of the world market for rice.

Last year, export of marine products, $7.71 billion, was also the highest ever, while spices exports touched $4 billion for the second year in a row.

Quality norm for MP wheat relaxed

The central government has relaxed the quality norm of wheat being procured from Madhya Pradesh for the 2023-24 marketing season on account of damage due to incessant rain and

Hailstorm. MP became the first state in the country to have received such a relaxation.