All set to achieve an annual target of $23.71 billion in current fiscal
Notwithstanding COVID-19 challenges, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has scripted a new success story by achieving 90 per cent of the export target fixed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for the financial year 2021-22.
The APEDA has successfully exported agricultural and processed food products worth $21.5 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal and is all set to achieve the annual export target of $23.71 billion for 2021-22. APEDA has a share of more than 5 per cent in achieving this target of $400 billion of mercantile exports in the current fiscal.
Being the highest foreign exchange earner, 91 per cent of the rice export target of $8.67 billion has been achieved by APEDA so far. Rice exports have crossed $8.67 billion from April-February in the current fiscal, India has exported rice worth $8.62 billion, while the export of other cereals has jumped to 105 per cent of the export target of $847 million.
In the fruits and vegetable category, against the export target of $3048 million till February, APEDA has exported F&V worth $2506 million, which is 75 per cent of the total target.
The cereal preparations and miscellaneous processed items have been exported to the tune of $2036 million which is 89 per cent of the export target of $2102 million till February in the current fiscal year, while the export of meat, dairy and products has been recorded at $3771 million, which is 82 per cent of the $4205 million export target fixed till February 2022.
The export of wheat recorded a huge surge at $1742 million during April-January 2021-22, growing 387 per cent over the corresponding period in 2020-21 when it touched $358 million, while other cereals registered a growth of 66 per cent by fetching $869 million during April-January 2021-22 over the corresponding period in 2020-21 when it touched $527 million.
Meat, dairy and poultry products exports grew over 13 per cent standing at $3408 million in April-January 2021-22 compared to $3005 million in the corresponding ten-month period of 2020-21. Fruits and vegetables exports were up by 16 per cent to touch $1207 million during April-January 2021-22 against $1037 million in April-January 2020-21, while processed fruits and vegetable exports were up by 11 per cent to reach $1269 million during the first ten months of 2021-22 against $1143 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
“We continue to provide assistance to exporters based on clusters approach in collaboration with state governments while taking into consideration objective of Agriculture Export Policy, 2018,” Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, said.
The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been also largely due to the various initiatives taken by APEDA 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.
