India has identified nearly 300 high-potential products across engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and chemicals to significantly scale exports to Russia, as New Delhi and Moscow work toward a $100 billion bilateral trade target by 2030. The initiative reflects a deliberate effort to rebalance a trade relationship currently dominated by energy imports and to unlock export opportunities in sectors where India has developed global competitiveness.

At present, India’s exports of these identified products to Russia stand at $1.7 billion, compared with Russia’s total imports of $37.4 billion in the same categories. India’s share in Russia’s overall import basket remains modest at around 2.3 percent, underscoring the scale of untapped potential. Officials note that this gap highlights a significant complementary trade space that Indian exporters can target in the coming years.

The export push is also closely linked to correcting India’s widening trade deficit with Russia, which stood at $59 billion. India’s imports from Russia have surged sharply, rising from $5.94 billion in 2020 to $64.24 billion in 2024. This more than tenfold increase has been driven almost entirely by crude oil imports, which climbed from about $2 billion in 2020 to $57 billion in 2024, accounting for nearly 21 percent of India’s total crude oil imports. Beyond hydrocarbons, fertilisers and vegetable oils form other major import categories.

According to officials, the Commerce Ministry identified the 300 products through a detailed analysis of complementary trade baskets, mapping India’s supply capabilities against Russia’s import demand across key sectors. The most promising areas closely align with India’s expanding strengths in engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and agriculture, all of which correspond to substantial unmet demand in the Russian market.

Agriculture and allied products, in particular, offer strong near-term potential. India currently exports about $452 million worth of these opportunity products to Russia, while Russia’s global import demand in the same categories is estimated at $3.9 billion. Engineering goods present one of the widest gaps, with Indian exports at just $90 million against Russia’s import demand of $2.7 billion, a gap that could widen further as Russia diversifies its sourcing away from traditional suppliers such as China.

Chemicals and plastics reflect a similar pattern, with India supplying $135 million to a Russian import demand of $2.06 billion. Pharmaceuticals remain a strategic corridor as well, with India exporting $546 million worth of pharma products to Russia, while Russia’s pharmaceutical import bill stands at approximately $9.7 billion, making Indian generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients important growth levers.

Beyond these high-value segments, India’s labour-intensive industries, including textiles, apparel, leather goods, handicrafts, processed foods, and light engineering, are also seen as well positioned to tap Russia’s large consumer base, supported by India’s cost competitiveness and manufacturing scale.

The identification of these 300 products signals a shift toward a more structured, sector-led export strategy with Russia. As geopolitical realignments reshape global supply chains and Russia seeks to diversify its import sources, Indian policymakers see an opportunity to embed Indian exporters more deeply into the Russian market. If supported by targeted trade facilitation, logistics solutions, and market-access initiatives, the strategy could help transform India–Russia trade into a more balanced, multi-sector partnership by the end of the decade.