Business Across Borders 2021

11 The contraction in exports during FY20 was broad based, with most of the major sectors like petroleum, oil & lubricants, gems & jewellery, electronic goods, textiles & allied products and engineering products witnessing substantial decline in exports. On the other hand, sectors like agriculture & allied products, drugs & pharmaceuticals, ores & minerals and base metals showed resilience and recorded expansion. Top 5 Best Performers Top 5 Worst Performers Commodity y-o-y % Growth % share in total exports Commodity % Growth % share in total exports Agriculture & allied products 16.2% 11% Petroleumcrude&products -45.13% 8.8% Ores & minerals 23.4% 2.12% Gems & Jewellery -39.66% 8.4% Drugs & pharmaceuticals 16.2% 8.7% Textiles & allied products -18.3% 10.1% Iron & steel 18.1% 4.2% Machinery -15.6% 9.1% Aluminium&products of aluminium 6.3% 2.1% Transport equipment -23.5% 6.8% Source: Ministry of Commerce Within agriculture, while many agricultural commodities witnessed positive growth, rice other than Basmati gave a stellar performance growing by 110% during April-December FY21. Within ores & minerals, iron ore witnessed strong growth of 63% y-o-y during April-December FY21, contributing positively to the growth of ores & minerals sector. Drugs & pharmaceuticals (bulk drugs, intermediates, formulations and biologicals) export also emerged strong during this period, showcasing India’s potential to become the ‘pharmacy of the world’. A significant raw material base, availability of large number of US-FDA compliant pharma plants and skilled workforce have largely contributed in the exports growth of drugs & pharmaceuticals sector. Nonetheless, apart from drugs & pharmaceuticals and agro chemicals, exports of other chemicals & related products namely dyes & intermediates, organic & inorganic chemicals, cosmetics & toiletries, paints & varnishes, etc. witnessed contraction. Key Export destinations USA continues to be the largest export market for India, despite the 10% decline in exports to the USA during April- December FY21, as compared to 3.6% growth in the corresponding period of the previous year. Exports to China have shown robust growth of 18% during April-December FY21 as compared to 3% in April-December FY20, helping it to move up to the second spot. On the other hand, India’s total export share to UAE declined to 5.6% in Apr-Dec FY21, as compared to 9.3% in Apr-Dec FY20. During April-December FY21. Exports to UAE plunged substantially by 48.7% (in US$ terms), as compared to a decline of 1.4% in the corresponding period of the previous year. Netherlands is another major loss in this list which has moved down by 4 spots due to almost 33% decline in exports during April-December FY21, as compared to the corresponding period last year. Further, while Malaysia appeared as a new entrant to the top 10 exports destinations list, Nepal which held 10th position in the last year no longer occupies position in this year’s list. India’s Top 10 export destinations Country April-December FY21 April-December FY20 % change in share Share Rank % Share Rank USA 18% 1 16.9% 1 1.1% China 7.6% 2 5.4% 3 2.2% UAE 5.6% 3 9.3% 2 -3.7% Hong Kong 3.6% 4 3.6% 4 -0.02% Singapore 3.1% 5 2.9% 5 0.2% Bangladesh 2.9% 6 2.5% 9 0.4% Germany 2.8% 7 2.6% 8 0.2% UK 2.7% 8 2.7% 7 0.04% Malaysia 2.3% 9 2% 11 0.3% Netherland 2.2% 10 2.7% 6 -0.6% Source: Ministry of Commerce Dun & Bradstreet