India's Agro Based Export to Arab: A Golden Chance

Union Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that India has become the world's largest food supplier to the Arab world. India achieved this feat by beating Brazil. This means that India is becoming a major food exporter to the world. This availability today is indicative of the Green Revolution that started during the time of Lal Bahadur Shastri. Not only the Union Minister and the Indian media, but also the famous Brazilian newspaper "The Rio Times" confirmed the news.

The outbreak of the corona virus has put a strain on supply chain operations, a headache for Brazil and a boon for India's exports of agro-based products. These exports are mainly to the 22 member countries of the League of Arab States. The member countries imported 8.15% from Brazil and 8.25% from India. This figure also shows that India does not yet have complete dominance, but a start has been made and India should seize this opportunity. Once the global supply chain is restored, Brazil will compete again.

India has built a supply chain with the help of the United Arab Emirates, which has benefited. India had a monopoly on the Arab market up to 2004-2005, but gradually Brazil captured this market. You will notice that India does not supply packaged food. Exports boneless meat, prawns, onions, guava and mangoes, wheat etc. Indian industry doesn’t have a multinational brand for packaged food known to the outside world. If this is done, the market is large enough for India to increase its export worth by at least 50 billion dollars.

Bilateral trade between India and the Arab world currently stands at 110-120 billion dollars. The UAE has a major role to play in this and the 110-120 billion trade will grow even more in the future. According to the World Trade Organization, India is one of the top 10 agricultural producers in the world. India is an agricultural country and ranks in the top 3 in the world in a wide range of agricultural productions. India has huge agro-based production capability and its goal should be to find newer markets and increase its exports.

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