Farm and marine products exports to China and Italy may take a USD 245 million hit in March alone due to the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, says a report. Italy and China, the worst-affected by the virus pandemic, together account for close to 9 per cent of the country's overall agriculture exports. China's share is 7.7 per cent or worth USD 192 million.
Exports of marine items and farm products, excluding cotton, include spices, guargum, cereals which will be the worst-affected, and lost business opportunity is over USD 245 million, says the World Trade Centre.
During the first 10 months of FY2019-20, total agriculture exports declined 6.1 per cent to USD 27.87 billion but to China the shipments soared almost 86 per cent. Similarly, agri exports to Italy declined 6.2 per cent to USD 322 million.
"Farm exports to China grew a whopping 85.7 per cent in the first 10 months of FY20 to USD 2.13 billion from USD 1.14 billion y-o-y," says the report.
The complete lockdown in China and Italy as a result of Covid-19 may affect our agriculture and allied exports (excluding cotton) worth USD 245 million
Unfortunately, the virus outbreak comes at a time when farm item demand from the country was picking up in China. Agriculture exports to China grew a whopping 89 per cent to USD 1.49 billion in FY19 over the previous year.
Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com