India’s agricultural exports, including aquaculture products, increased 5.1 per cent to US$37.29bn in 2013-14, due to the rise in exports of rice

Exports of agriculture and allied products in 2011-12 accounted for 9.08 per cent of India’s total exports as against 6.9 per cent in 2010-11, according to the Economic Survey 2013-14.

Since the opening up of exports of rice in 2011, there has been a surge in its share in total exports by more than three-fold from US$2,575mn in 2010-11 to US$7,742mn in 2013-14, the survey said.

“Exports of total dairy, poultry, meat, and marine products have doubled their share in agricultural exports between 2008-09 and 2013-14,” the report added.

It attributed the rise in exports to some policy changes made in recent years such as permitting export of rice and wheat in 2011 and exempting processed or value added agricultural products from export restrictions since February 2013.

The survey said that during the last five years ending 2012-13, the food processing sector has been growing faster than the agriculture sector at an average annual growth rate of around 8.4 per cent.