India's maize export increases six folds, reaches all time high of $816.3 million

In a significant development, the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced on Sunday that maize exports reached USD 816.31 million in the first ten months of the current fiscal year 2021-22 (April-January), surpassing the USD 634.85 million obtained the previous fiscal year.

"From an exports realization of USD 142.8 million in 2019-20, the export of maize increased nearly six-fold, taking the total value of shipment to USD 1593.73 million in the last three years despite logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak," the Ministry said in a press release. 

Maize dubbed the "Queen of Cereals" around the world, has emerged as a prominent foreign export cereal among the commodities covered by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

"Vietnam has emerged as a major destination for the export of maize. India exported maize worth USD 244.24 million to Vietnam in the first ten months of the current fiscal (April-January 2021-22). Other prominent importing countries are Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Taiwan, Oman, etc," the release read.

Maize - India's third most largely cultivated cereal 

Maize is farmed all year in India, but it is primarily a Kharif crop, with 85 per cent of the land under cultivation during the season. After rice and wheat, maize is India's third most important cereal crop. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh are the states where the cereal crop is largely grown.
Maize is one of the most flexible developing crops, with greater adaptation to a variety of agro-climatic situations. It has the largest genetic output potential among cereals.

Maize is a basic raw material/ingredient in many industrial goods, including starch, oil, protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, film, textile, gum, package, and paper sectors, among others.

"The significant rise in agri-exports is seen as a testimony of the government's commitment to increase farmers' income through creating requisite infrastructure and improving value chains on boosting exports of agricultural and processed food products," Dr M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA said.

"The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been largely due to the various initiatives taken by APEDA such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring new potential markets through product-specific and general marketing campaigns by the active involvement of Indian Embassies," the Ministry said. 

With ANI Inputs
Image: ANI