New Delhi (NVI): The export of essential agricultural commodities in the first six months of this year has increased by 43.4 per cent to Rs 53,626.6 crore from Rs 37,397.3 crore in the same period last year, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
“Major commodity groups which have recorded positive export growth during April-Sept, 2020-21 vis-à-vis April-Sept, 2019-20 are Groundnut (35%), Refined Sugar (104%), wheat (206%), Basmati Rice (13%) and Non-Basmati Rice (105%) etc,” the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said in a statement.
Moreover, balance of trade in April-September this year has been positive at Rs 9,002 crore as against trade deficit of Rs 2,133 during the same period last year.
On month to month basis (MoM), India’s agricultural export of essential commodities during September this year has been of Rs 9,296 crore against export of Rs 5,114 crore during the same period last year showing an increase of 81.7 per cent, the ministry said.
With the aim, to boost agriculture exports, the government announced Agriculture Export Policy, 2018 which inter-alia provides for cluster-based approach for export-centric farming of cash crops like fruits, vegetables, spices, etc. whereby clusters for specific agri products are identified across the country and focused interventions are carried out in these clusters.
Apart from this, the government has also set up Eight Export Promotion Forums under the aegis of APEDA to boost export of agriculture or horticulture products, the ministry stated.
“The EPFs are created on banana, grapes, mango, pomegranate, onion, dairy, rice basmati and rice non-basmati. These EPFs reach out to stakeholders across the entire production or supply chain of export for increasing these exports significantly to the global market, through various interventions,” it added.
Recently, the government has also announced Agri Infra Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore to improve agriculture business environment which shall promote agriculture export.
-RJV
