India exports dairy items worth Rs 554 crore during Covid-19 pandemic

It’s rather heartening to note that in the times of Covid-19 pandemic, India managed to export dairy products worth Rs 554 crore to more than 110 countries so far.

A report by the Agricultural & Processed Food Exports Development Authority (APEDA), the apex body for trade promotion, informs that the UAE remains the biggest market for Indian dairy products.This year, so far, orders worth Rs 154 crore were placed by the UAE alone. The report was submitted by APEDA to the animal husbandry department last week.

The US came next with orders worth Rs 110 crore followed by Bhutan with Rs 78 crore, Singapore with Rs 53 crore, Saudi Arabia with Rs 39 crore and Australia with Rs 37 crore.

In the last financial year, India had exported dairy products worth Rs 1,341 crore much lower than the Rs 2,423 crore the year before that.

So, while this year’s figures have been less than half so far, the pandemic effect  has seen as positive indicators.

Milk production from Uttar Pradesh (30 MT), Rajasthan (23 MT), Andhra Pradesh (15 MT) and Gujarat (14 MT) have largely contributed to these exports.

The top export in that period has been ghee (Rs 1,521 crore) with the UAE importing ghee worth Rs 74 crore this year so far.