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Context
- India’s agriculture exports have grown 16.5% year-on-year in April-September. It is set to surpass the record $50.2 billion achieved in 2021-22 (April-March).
Curbs in the past
- The government had, on May 13, banned the export of wheat.
- On May 24, sugar exports were moved from the “free” to “restricted” list. Also, total exports for the 2021-22 sugar year (October-September) were capped at 100 lt.
- On September 8, exports of broken rice were prohibited, and a 20% duty was imposed on all other non-parboiled non-basmati shipments.
Trends in Exports and Imports
- Despite the above-mentioned curbs exports are growing.
- Wheat exports, at 45.90 lakh tonnes (lt) during the April-September period, were nearly twice the 23.76 lt for the same period last year.
- Sugar exports, likewise, grew 45.5% in value terms to $2.65 billion during April-September, and are on course to exceed the all-time-high of $4.6 billion reached in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
- Non-basmati exports have also risen from 82.26 lt in April-September 2021 to 89.57 lt in April-September 2022, alongside that of basmati rice (from 19.46 lt to 21.57 lt).
- 2021-22, registered both record exports ($50.2 billion) as well as imports ($32.4 billion).
- Although the resultant surplus of $17.8 billion was much below the $27.7 billion surplus in the previous all-time-high export year of 2013-14.

- Note: All barring two (cotton and spices) have posted positive growth.
- India has been out-priced by Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Brazil in pepper, while it has lost market share to Guatemala in cardamom.
- In 2021-22, the country’s cashew exports were valued at $453.08 million, compared to imports of $1.26 billion.
- 60% of India’s total agri imports is accounted for by a single commodity: vegetable oils. Vegetable oils are today India’s fifth biggest import item after petroleum, electronics, gold, and coal.

Must Read Article: https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/agricultural-exports
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-economics/indias-agriculture-exports-commerce-ministry-8266667/