Plans for incentives for exporters closed

- Commodity Current: Jayavadan Gandhi

Agricultural production has been increasing significantly due to continuous good monsoon for the last three years. Exports of surplus agricultural products are also making steady progress. Indian agricultural products are being exported to many new countries of the world. As a result, India's neighboring countries are also getting bogged down. Last year, exports of Indian agricultural products increased by 12.5 per cent to over Rs 200 crore in 2020-21. Exports of cereals, basmati rice, wheat, millets, maize and other coarse grains in particular have grown significantly. The United States, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, and European countries are the major buyers of Indian agricultural products. The Indian agricultural industry is benefiting from the failure of agriculture in many countries due to the Kovid Koro epidemic. China is the largest buyer of food items in the world.

Six months ago, the government announced a scheme called Remittance of Duties and Tax on Export Products (ERP) to boost exports of Indian agricultural products and to provide tax exemptions and relief to export producers. Against which it was decided to close the previously implemented Syangji. Incentives amounting to 5 to 6 per cent in the form of incentives were given as incentives to encourage exporters to increase exports under the Sianji scheme. Extensive exporters have complained that the government did not pay crores of rupees to the exporters from April 2020 to December 2020. Exporters are confused as the government has not made any disclosure in the last six months regarding the new policy made by the government against Syangji, which has been in force since January 2021. Many exporters are expressing frustration with the mindset that there will be no incentives under the Eranghi scheme. On the one hand, the government is talking about trying to increase exports, and on the other hand, exporters are realizing that it has not given any relief or incentive.

On the other hand, exporters are facing a heavy burden in boosting exports due to the continuous increase in export fares since the onset of the Corona epidemic.

Container fares have tripled. According to exporters, the fare for containers has gone up from Rs 500 last year to Rs 500 now. At the same time Porto fares are steadily rising. For example, fares in New York ports have risen from an average of 5,000 to 2,000, while fares in European ports have risen from 1,200 to 3,000. Foreign trade has become more expensive for exporters as the number of containers has been reduced and the size has been reduced in the face of rising container fares, making it difficult for them to survive in the global market competition as the cost of agricultural commodities rises.

However, the government estimates that the prices of pulses will be lower than the five-year agreement to import 20,000 tonnes of pulses from Malawi in South Africa to curb rising prices of some items such as pulses. Last year, Mawthao and heavy rains reduced the production of pulses by 5 to 20 per cent to around 3 million tonnes. In previous years, the production of pulses was around 3 to 4 lakh tonnes.

At present, with the supply of rains required for planting, the agricultural work in the rural panth has started in earnest. As the income of the peasantry is declining, the overall situation has become sluggish due to the small number of trades in the agricultural markets. With the opening of the lockdown, the demand for spices like cumin is rising and the market is rising again with falling prices. As the demand for cumin from countries like China as well as local domestic demand has increased, the cumin market has warmed up again.

China's exports to parallel Egypt have also increased. Other cumin producing countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey etc. are likely to have limited crops due to drought and political crisis. So the prices are likely to be stronger as demand for cumin is likely to increase in the near future. In addition to cumin, cardamom, ginger, coriander and other commodities, the market is likely to remain hot due to increasing demand against the shortage of goods.