India's Farm Exports Surge By Whopping 43.4 Per Cent In First Half of 2020-21; Wheat Exports Rise By 206 Per Cent

In a positive development, India's agri-commodities exports have surged by 43.4 per cent in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year, despite COVID-19 pandemic and resulting supply chain disruptions wreaking havoc across the nation and the world, reports Hindu Businessline.

While in 2019-20, the total farm exports in the April-September period stood at Rs 37,397.3 crore, the figure has surged to whopping Rs 53,626.6 crore in the same period of 2020-21 as per the latest data made public by Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.

The export of wheat surged by 206 per cent, non-basmati rice by 2015 per cent, refined sugar by 104 per cent, groundnut by 35 per cent and basmati rice by 13 per cent. The massive surge in the farm exports has resulted in a significantly positive Rs 9,002 crore balance of trade, compared to a trade deficit of Rs 2,133 crore in the April-September period.

It should be noted that in a bid to push the farm exports, the Government had earlier launched the Agriculture Export Policy, 2018 which provides for a cluster-based approach for export-centric farming of cash crops like fruits, vegetables, spices et cetera.

The Government has also set up eight Export Promotion Forums (EPFs) under APEDA, which is the nation's apex body to promote farm exports. These EPFs have been set up to dedicatedly push the exports of bananas, grapes, mangos, pomegranates, onions, dairy, basmati rice and non-basmati rice.