India’s agri, fruit, pharma exports under stress, admits trade official
New Delhi: As a fallout of the West Asia crisis, major exports, including petroleum products, chemicals, plastics, engineering goods, rice, pharma and gems and jewellery, have been impacted.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Lav Aggarwal addressing the media at an inter-ministerial briefing on the fallout of developments in West Asia, detailed the sectors under stress.
He said the conflict poses challenges for exporters to ship goods to the Gulf region, with which India had a bilateral trade of $178 billion in 2024-25 ($56.87 billion exports and $121.67 billion imports).
The region, which includes the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, is the largest agri-export destination for Basmati rice, marine products and fresh produce, Lav Agarwal said, adding air and sea freight costs have surged for fresh fruits and vegetables in transit.
He added that payment channels to key markets could come under stress, which could also impact credit cycles for food and agri-sector goods.
For gems and jewellery, he said, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is both a major export market and a sourcing hub.
Gold jewellery exports are under stress, while sourcing of gold bars and rough diamond imports from the GCC is also facing disruptions. LPG stress in manufacturing clusters is further affecting metal melting and gemstone processing, according to a presentation shown by the DGFT.
Meanwhile, vessel rerouting has added to the transportation cost and the shipping lines have imposed war risk surcharges which are hurting engineering exports to this region.
LPG and PNG supplies are also under stress for foundry, forging and machining units, while aluminium supply has been disrupted, with key Gulf ports restricting access to engineering goods.
