India’s basmati rice exports for the first half of financial year 2023-24 registered a near 14 per cent rise in value terms at $2.59 billion over the $2.27 billion recorded in the same period last year.

This is even as overall farm produce exports monitored by the Agricultural Produce Exports Development Authority (APEDA) declined 11 per cent at $12.19 billion over the same period last year at $13.75 billion, provisional data issued by the export promotion body said.

In volume terms, basmati rice shipments during H1 registered 6.58 per cent growth at over 2.3 million tonnes (2.15 million tonnes).

However, non-basmati rice shipments fell 15.4 per cent to $2.27 billion ($3.19 billion) due to curbs imposed by the Government to improve domestic supplies and contain a price rise. In volume terms, non-basmati rice shipments stood at 6.88 million tonnes during H1, over 8.9 million tonnes in the same period last year.

Besides basmati rice, the other agri products that bucked the broader export trend and registered growth during H1 include groundnuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable seeds, cereal preparations, alcoholic beverages, cocoa products, and live stock products such as buffalo meat, sheep and goat meat, poultry and processed meat.

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Groundnut shipments were up nearly 41 per cent at $346 million during H1 FY24 ($246 million), while fresh fruits and vegetable shipments rose by close to 14 per cent at $859 million. Processed vegetable shipments were up 57 per cent at $297

Shipments of cereal preparations were up 14 per cent at $410 million ($360 million), while alcoholic beverages rose 31 per cent to $197 million ($150 m). Cashew kernel shipments also registered a marginal increase at $158 million ($157 m).

Buffalo meat shipments were up 6 per cent at $1.73 billion ($1.63 billion), while poultry products were up 43 per cent at $81 million ($57 million).

However, dairy products registered a decline of about 36.7 per cent at $217 million ($342 million) during H1 FY 24. Milled products saw a 70 per cent decline at $70 million ($233 m), while wheat shipments saw a 98 per cent decline at $21 million ($1.48 billion). Exports of other cereals were also down by about 28 per cent at $379 million ($525 million). The shipment of pulses also fell by 1.73 per cent at $323 million ($329 million).

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