New Delhi, Nov 2 (KNN) India’s agricultural and processed food products export are up by 25 per cent to USD 1,3771 million in Q2 of the current fiscal compared to the same period last year, as per the data released by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S).

The overall export of Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) products increased to USD 1, 3771 million in April-September 2022 from USD 1, 1056 million over the same period of the last fiscal year.

For the year 2022-23, an export target of USD 23.56 billion has been fixed by APEDA for the agricultural and processed food products basket and an export of USD 13.77 billion has already been achieved in these six months of the current fiscal due to the various initiatives taken by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“The processed fruits and vegetables recorded a significant growth of 42.42 percent (April-September 2022), while fresh fruits registered 4 percent growth as opposed to corresponding months of the previous year,” as per the DGCI&S provisional data.

Also, processed food products like cereals and miscellaneous processed items reported a growth of 29.36 percent when made comparison with the first six months of the last year.

In April-September, 2021, fresh fruits were exported to the tune of USD 301 million which increased to USD 313 million in the corresponding months of the current fiscal. Exports of processed F&V jumped to USD 1,024 million in six months from USD 719 million in the corresponding months of 2021.

The export of meat, dairy & poultry products increased by 10.29 percent and the export of other cereals recorded a growth of 12.29 percent in six months. The poultry products alone registered a growth of 83 percent as its export rose to USD 57 million within the half-year bracket from USD 31 million recorded for the corresponding months of the previous year. Wheat export registered an increase of 136 percent in Q2 of the current fiscal.

Other cereals’ export increased from USD 467 million in April-September 2021 to USD 525 million in April-September 2022 and the export of livestock products increased from USD 1,903 million in April-September 2021 to USD 2,099 million in April-September 2022.

Talking about the achievements, M Angamuthu, Chairman, of APEDA, said, “We have been working with all the stakeholders such as farmers, exporters, and processors to ensure that quality agricultural and processed food products are exported from the country.”

As per the DGCI&S data, the country’s agricultural products exports had grown by 19.92 percent in the latest FY of 2022 to touch USD 50.21 billion.

“Through creating a necessary eco-system of exports along with collaboration with key stakeholders in the agri-exports value chains, we are aiming to sustain the growth in India’s agricultural and processed food exports in the current fiscal as well,” Angamuthu, said.

The rise in the export of agricultural and processed food products is the outcome of centre’s initiatives for export promotion of agricultural and processed food products such as organising B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product-specific and general marketing campaigns by the active involvement of Indian Embassies.  (KNN Bureau)