For instance, the export of unworked human hair has soared from $34.5 million in 2018-19 (the pre-Covid year) to almost $180 million last year – a jump of over five times – albeit on a smaller base. Similarly, certain types of copper wire exports (with a maximum cross-section diameter of more than 6mm) surged from $76 million to $867 million – an 11-fold rise. Groundnut oil exports went up from almost zero in 2018-19 to $217 million last year, data collated by think tank GTRI showed.
Smartphones exports, of course, went up almost 10 times from $1.6 billion in FY19 to $15.5 billion in FY24, which GTRI attributed to “positive policy interventions”. A separate analysis by the commerce department showed that during the year-ended March 2024, Turkey saw the highest increase in electronics goods exports, rising 147%, followed by the US (75%) and the UK (30%). During the last financial year, electronics goods exports went up 23.6% to over $29 billion, driven by smartphones. Only iron ore saw a higher increase, more than doubling to $3.9 billion in FY24 compared to $1.8 billion as export curbs were eased.
And, during the last five years, parboiled rice exports have more than doubled from $1.5 billion in FY19 to $3.3 billion last fiscal, and in this case, the base was not so small. Anti-cancer drugs have seen exports jump from $571 million to over $1.5 billion, rising nearly three times. Among traditional exports, small cars didn’t fair badly either with exports rising 43% from $3 billion in FY19 to close to $4.3 billion last year.
The bad news is in some of the traditional segments. For instance, cut and polished diamonds, where the value of shipments fell by a third to $23.7 billion during these five years. Similarly, in the case of cotton T-shirts, exports were 15% lower at $1.6 billion, while leather fell 11% to $2.5 billion.