India exports rise to record high of USD 418 bn in FY22

Buoyed by petroleum products, engineering goods, gems and jewellery and chemicals, India's merchandise exports rose to a record $418 billion in FY22, data released by the commerce and industry on Sunday showed.
In 2020-21, India's goods exports were $291.8 billion and in FY20, they were $313.36 billion.

Outbound shipments touched an all-time high of $40.38 billion in March, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said as he assured that India will step up wheat supplies to countries hit by the Russia-Ukraine War.

March goods exports were up 14.53% on-year and 87.89% higher than $21.49 billion in March 2020. A significant jump in exports to developed countries like the US, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, Belgium and Germany.

"The growth has occurred in sectors that has smaller enterprises and involves the agriculture sector...Even a pandemic like Covid-19 and the war like situation has not deterred our export target for the year," Goyal said.

Wheat exports are likely to exceed 10 million tonnes in 2022-23, Goyal said. Technical specifications of Indian wheat have also been shared with Turkey-one of the largest importer along side Egypt-for possible wheat exports.

Goyal said that India will step up wheat exports to countries hit by Russia-Ukraine conflict. "We will continue to export wheat in a big way to meet needs in countries who are not getting supplies from conflict areas. We are likely to exceed our wheat exports over 10 million tonnes in 2022-23," he said.

Engineering goods exports hit a record $111 billion, of which about $16 billion worth goods were shipped to the US alone.

Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said that 3.5 million tonnes of wheat has been exported to Bangladesh largely through the Petrapole land border. "Many of them (sectors) were labour-intensive sectors contributing majorly to the exports basket, which itself is a good sign, further helping job creation in the country," said FIEO President, A Sakthivel.

Sources said that the import bill too is likely to have touched a record high of $600 billion in the fiscal. India's merchandise import in April-February FY22 was $550.12 billion, up 59.21% over $345.54 billion in the year ago period and 24.11% higher than in April 2019-February 2020. The trade deficit during the period was $176.07 billion.