India has consistently maintained trade surplus in the agricultural products over the years. India’s agricultural and allied exports during 2019-20 were Rs. 2.52 trillion (33.590 million dollars) and imports were Rs. 1.47 trillion (19.594 millon dollars). Even, during the difficult time of Pandemic, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export. The export of Agri and allied commodities during Apr,2020 - Feb,2021 were Rs. 2.74 trillion (36.525 million dollars) as compared to Rs. 2.31 trillion (30.795 million dollars) in the same period last year indicating an increase of 18.49%.

The commodities which posted significant positive growth in exports were wheat,Other Cereals,Rice (other than Basmati), Soya meal, Spices, Sugar, Raw Cotton, Fresh Vegetable, Processed Vegetables, and Alcoholic Beverages etc.

Wheat and other cereals posted huge growth over last year, i.e., increasing from Rs. 42,5 million (566,583 dollars) to Rs. 328,3 million (4,37 million dollars) and Rs. 131,8 million (1,76 million dollars) to Rs. 454,2 million (6,06 million dollars), respectively. On specific demand from countries, NAFED has exported 50,000 MT wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 MT wheat to Lebanon under G2G arrangement. India has witnessed tremendous growth of 727 % for Wheat export.

Country has witnessed significant growth of 132% in export of (Non-Basmati) Rice. Export of Non-Basmati Rice has gone up from Rs 1,3 billion (17,4 million dollars) in 2019-20 to Rs 3.02 billion (40,4 million dollars) in 2020-21.This increase in exports is on account of multiple factors, mainly being India capturing new markets namely, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico. Exportswere also made to Togo, Senegal, Malaysia, Madagascar, Iraq, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Vietnam, Tanzania Rep and Madagascar.

India also enhanced export of Soya meals by 132%. Soya meal has gone up from Rs 3,09 billion (41,2 million dollars) in 2019-20 to Rs 7,22 billion (96,3 million follars) in 2020-21.

Other commodities of Agri& Allied basket witnessing significant increase in export during April, 2020 to February, 2021 as compared to corresponding period during 2019-20, have been Spices (Rs 26,2 billion vs Rs 23,5 billion; growth 11.44%), Sugar (Rs 17 billion vs Rs. 12,2 billion; growth 39.64%), Raw Cotton(Rs 11,3 billion vs Rs 6,7 billion; growth 67.96%), Fresh Vegetable (Rs 4,8 billion vs Rs 4,1 billion; growth 17.54%) and Processed Vegetables (Rs 2,8 billion vs Rs 2 billion; growth 42.69%)etc.

The imports of Agri and allied commodities during April, 2020 – Feb, 2021 were Rs. 141 billion as compared to Rs. 137 billion in the same period last year witnessing a slight increase of 2.93%.

Despite COVID-19, balance of trade in agriculture has favorably increased during April, 2020 – Feb, 2021 to Rs. 132 billion as against Rs. 93 billion during the same period in 2019-20.