The Government has formulated a comprehensive Agriculture Export Policy to consolidate the efforts for export of agricultural products.

The objectives of the Agriculture Export policy are:

• To diversify the export basket, destinations and boost high value and value added agricultural exports including focus on perishables.
• To promote novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports.
• To provide an institutional mechanism for pursuing market access, tackling barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues.
• To strive to double India’s share in world agri exports by integrating with global value chain at the earliest.
• Enable farmers to get benefit of export opportunities in overseas market.

The Department of Commerce also has several schemes to promote exports, including exports of agricultural products: Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Market Access Initiatives (MAI) Scheme and Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). In addition, assistance to the exporters of agricultural products is also available under the Export Promotion Schemes of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Tobacco Board, Tea Board, Coffee Board, Rubber Board and Spices Board. These organisations also seek to promote exports through participation in international fairs & exhibitions, taking initiatives to gain market access for different products in different markets, dissemination of market intelligence and taking steps to ensure quality of exported products.

The exports of agricultural products depend on several factors such as international and domestic demand and supply situation, international and domestic prices, concerns of food security, diplomatic and humanitarian considerations. Agriculture imports are constantly monitored and appropriate decisions are taken as per the prevailing situation.

Government of India announces Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for 22 mandated crops and Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane to ensure that the farmers get remunerative price for their produce.

The year-wise details of export of agricultural products during the last three years are:

Year	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
Agricultural Exports (USD Billion)	38.71	32.43	33.28	38.43
Increase in Agricultural Exports (%)		-16.22	2.64	15.45

Source: DGCI&S

 This information was given by the Minister of State of Commerce and Industry, C. R. Chaudhary, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

Agriculture Export Policy aims to diversify and boost high-value agricultural exports while strengthening market-access mechanisms. The Agriculture Export Policy seeks to diversify and boost high-value and value-added agricultural exports, pursue market access and sanitary and phytosanitary solutions, and integrate Indian agriculture with global value chains. Export-promotion is supported by central schemes (TIES, MAI, MEIS) and sectoral bodies (APEDA, MPEDA, Tea Board, Coffee Board, Rubber Board, Spices Board) through market access initiatives, fairs, market intelligence and quality measures. Exports vary with demand, prices, food-security and diplomatic factors, imports are monitored, and the Government announces MSPs and FRP for sugarcane to ensure remunerative prices for farmers.