India’s export of processed food products grew by 26.51 per cent during April’20-Feb’21 to Rs 43,798 crore despite the COVID-19 pandemic related challenges, said an official release by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Friday.
Major processed food products exported from India include pulses, processed vegetables, processed fruits and juices, groundnuts, guar gum, cereals preparations, milled products, alcoholic beverages, and oil meals.
Value-added products such as processed vegetables, alcoholic beverages, and milled products witnessed a robust growth of more than 40 per cent in April’20-Feb’21 compared to the same period in 2019-20.
The export of miscellaneous processed items including Indian snacks, sauces, starch products, vegetable flours, malt products etc and pulses grew by 36 per cent and 33 per cent respectively in the first 11 months of April’20-Feb’21.
Substantial exports growth has achieved for the cereals-based products 18 per cent, processed fruits and juices 12 per cent and Groundnut 7 per cent. The export of oil meals rose by 96 per cent in April’20-Feb’21.
The future of the food processing market looks promising with opportunities in beverage, dairy, convenience food & snacks, fruits and vegetables industries. The food processing market is expected to reach an estimated $4.1 trillion by 2024 worldwide. The major drivers for this market are increasing demand for ready-to-eat food products and changing lifestyle.
India has shown substantial growth in food processing products and currently the fifth largest country in the world in the food processing industry. India has the potential to capture the additional market as it has diverse agro-climatic conditions, which favours the production of food ingredients in bulk, and the availability of promising infrastructure.
Dr M. Angamuthu, Chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) said, this trend of increasing exports of processed food products is likely to continue in the financial year 2021-22. There is an increase in demand for Pulses, Processed fruits and vegetables, Milled products, cereals preparations and other processed items in markets such as Middle East, Far East, USA and UK.
To increase agricultural and processed food products exports, APEDA took steps such as organising virtual buyer-seller meet, product promotion meeting, webinars, creation of products specific export promotion forums, promotion of GI products and extending the financial assistance for exports, Dr Angamuthu added.
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