Trade of Horticultural Products from India: Performance, Competitiveness and Direction

Abstract

Currently, horticulture sector contributes about 30% to the India’s agricultural GDP and covers 13.08% of cropped area. This sector provides for about 37% of the total agriculture of India. Although India’s horticultural sector faces the problem of lower productivity in comparison to other countries like USA. Productivity of India is about half of the productivity of USA both in case of fruits & vegetables. Thus increase in production of horticultural crops is generally attributed to general increase in area under these crops.  Moreover, India’s share in global horticulture exports is minuscule and mainly targets South Asian & Middle East Countries only which is a matter of concern. The study aims to analyze the growth and competitiveness of Indian trade of horticultural products. Besides this, the study also aims to see the direction of Indian horticultural exports. The results reveals that export of horticultural products is emerging impressively but remained less than Indian imports of horticultural crops which have resulted in to trade deficit related to horticultural trade. The commodity wise analysis shows that India’s major importing partners for the horticultural products are Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, UAE, Pakistan, Nepal, Vietnam Social Republic, Germany, France, UK, US, Netherland, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.