India’s agriculture exports drop 3% to $5.88 bn in Q1 on Red Sea crisis
India’s agriculture exports fell by 3% to $5.88 billion in Q1 of FY 2024-25 due to global headwinds and tight domestic conditions. Challenges included rising shipping and air freight costs from the Red Sea crisis, and a drop in global maize prices. Export controls on rice, particularly non-basmati varieties, also impacted figures. Despite a 0.46% decrease in rice exports to $2.8 billion, the government remains optimistic about regaining export levels in the coming months.
India’s agriculture exports contracted 3 per cent to $5.88 billion during the first quarter of the financial year due to major ‘global headwinds and tight domestic supply conditions’.
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) chairman Abhishek Dev said the current challenges in the agriculture sector include the rise in shipping costs and air freight triggered by the Red Sea crisis, fall in global prices of maize, which took a toll on exports.
Rice exports have also been constrained by export controls on certain varieties of the grain including non-basmati rice imposed by India.
During the quarter ended June this year, India exported rice – basmati and non-basmati – worth $2.8 billion, down 0.46 per cent.
The government, however, believes India will be able to catch up with last year’s rice exports in the next six months.
“There have been a lot of issues in the logistics, particularly due to the Red Sea crisis, which has been persisting and there has been an increase in cost of air freight. Due to issues between the US and China, there has been shortages in the containers also,” Dev told reporters.
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