Page 610 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

Agriculture & Food Management 237

International Trade in Agricultural Commodities

7.9 In 2019-20, India’s agricultural and allied exports amounted to approximately ` 252
thousand crores. The major export destinations were USA, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nepal and
Bangladesh. The top agriculture and related products exported from India were marine products,
basmati rice, buffalo meat, spices, non-basmati rice, cotton raw, oil meals, sugar, castor oil and
tea. While India occupies a leading position in global trade of aforementioned agri- products, its
total agri-export basket accounts for a little over 2.5 per cent of world agri-trade.

7.10 Since economic reforms began in 1991, India has remained a net exporter of agri-products,
with agri-exports touching ` 2.52 lakh crores and imports at `1.47 lakh crores in FY 2019-20.
An analysis of last six years of the share of top ten agricultural commodities in total value of
agricultural export shows that there have been significant changes in the composition of agri-
exports (Figure 7). The share of marine products in total agricultural export value has remained
the largest over the period. Its share in total agricultural export value increased from 14.5 per
cent in 2015-16 to close to 19 per cent in 2019-20. The share of basmati rice in total agricultural
export value has also shown an increasing trend during the period. Other commodities that have
witnessed an increasing trend during the period are non-basmati rice, spices and sugar. The
shares of the commodities such as buffalo meat and raw cotton in total agricultural export value
have, however, declined during the period. The shares of the commodities such as castor oil and
tea have remained more or less stable over this period.

Figure 7: Trend in the Share of Agricultural Commodities in Total Value of Agri-export (per cent)

75.0
70.0
65.0
60.0
55.0
50.0
45.0
40.0
35.0
30.0
25.0
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21*
Marine Products Rice Basmati Spices Buffalo Meat Non-Basmati Rice
Sugar Raw Cotton Castor Oil Oil Meals Tea

Source: Based on data received from DAC&FW.
* Upto November, 2020.

Minimum Support Price (MSP)

7.11 The Union Budget for 2018-19 had announced that MSPs would be kept at the level of
1.5 times of the cost of production. On the basis of the above-mentioned principle, Government
recently increased the MSPs for all mandated kharif and rabi crops for 2020-21 season.