Higher price realisations for commodities such as rice and buffalo meat, despite a decline in volumes, have helped push up farm product exports in dollar value terms for the April-September period in the current financial year over the corresponding period last year.
Total value of shipments under Apeda’s product portfolio exceeded the $9 billion mark for the said period. In rupee terms, the value of the shipments registered an increase of 8.9 per cent aided by a weak currency at ₹61,789 crore (₹56,741 last year).
Despite a dip in volumes on account of a slowdown in purchases by key buyer Iran, basmati rice exports in value terms were up by about 6 per cent in dollar terms and around 12 per cent in rupee terms on higher pricing. Iran had imposed a ban on basmati imports from late July to protect its domestic growers.
The average realisations for basmati were higher at $1,082 per tonne as against $997 in the corresponding period of the previous year. In rupee terms, basmati rice exports stood at ₹15,331 as against ₹13,706 crore.
Like basmati, non-basmati rice shipments also suffered a slowdown on account of higher duty imposed by Bangladesh and reduced purchases from African countries. However, the average per-unit realisation was higher at $411 per tonne as against $407 in the corresponding of the previous year. A similar trend was also witnessed in buffalo meat shipments during the period.
Basmati is the largest product in Apeda’s product portfolio, accounting for a 25 per cent share of total earnings, followed by buffalo meat at 21 per cent and non-basmati rice at 17 per cent.
However, categories such as pulses, fresh vegetables and dairy products witnessed a different trend, wherein the volumes grew but the average per-unit realisations were down on account of a dip in prices.
Pulses realisation down
The average realisation for pulses saw a major decline of around 40 per cent during the first half this year at $901 per tonne as against $1,512 in the corresponding previous year. However, export volumes of pulses have more than doubled.
Similarly, average realisations for fresh vegetables were down marginally, at $266 per tonne ($272) and for dairy products at $2721 per tonne ($2,755).
Interestingly, exports of guargum grew both in volumes and value during the period. The per-unit realisation for guargum increased to $1,340 per tonne as against $1,254 in the corresponding period last year.