Agri & processed food exports likely to see growth this year.

 MUMBAI: Despite a global slowdown, agri and processed food exports from India may register an increase in absolute growth in the current

financial year.

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) feels the exports will grow in absolute terms due to higher demand from Asian and African markets that are aggressively procuring relatively cheaper products from countries such as India. This is significant at a time when other major exports are slowing down.

At present, around 70% of the country’s agri and processed food exports are to developing countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America. With the global downturn hitting the profitability of supermarkets in these countries, they are now looking at less expensive products.

“Numbers will grow in absolute terms as Africa and lesser developed Asian countries would look at India to source less expensive products,” said Apeda director S Dave. He added that the recession has hit everyone including these countries who, instead of sourcing expensive products from developed markets, are looking at markets such as India.

Going forward, exports may get a fillip if Russia re-opens its market and India gets an access to markets of Japan and the US for export of grapes, pomegranates and litchis. Apeda hopes that Russia may shortly re-open it market for Indian plant based products, imports of which were banned a year ago due to pest related issues.

Mr Dave said that Apeda is trying to push for grape exports to Japan and the US. “We should also get an entry into the US markets for pomegranates and litchis this summer itself,” he said.

For the current financial year, Mr Dave feels that export in value terms could grow by 20% compared to the previous fiscal which recorded 46% growth in relative terms. There has been consistent growth in export of agri and processed food products from the country.

According to official data, India exported about 17.5 million tonne of agri and processed foods worth Rs 31,870 crore in FY08 against 10.9 million tonne valued at Rs 21,805.9 crore the previous year.

Exports in most of the sectors, including textiles, gem and jewellery and handicrafts have taken a beating following the global recession that has hit key markets in the US and Europe. According to official figures, Indian exports declined by 9.9% in November 2008 to $11.5 bn from $12.7 bn a year ago.