RTE export items include biscuits & confectionery, sweets & snacks, and breakfast cereals
New Delhi: India’s export of final consumer food products under Ready to Eat (RTE), Ready to Cook (RTC) and Ready to Serve (RTS) segment rose by more than 23% to $ 1011 million in April – October (2021-22) compared to $ 823 million reported in April – October (2020-21).
India exported more than $ 2.14 billion worth of final food products in 2020-21.
Ready to Eat (RTE), Ready to Cook (RTC) and Ready to Serve (RTS) under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) basket have registered a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.4 per cent from 2011-12 to 2020-21.
According to the latest Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) data, India exported final food products which includes RTE, RTC and RTS, worth $5,438 million in the last three financial three years (2018-19 and 2020-2021).
With thrust on Value Addition of products for exports, the food products under the RTE category have registered an Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent in the last one decade and the share of RTE in APEDA export has increased from 2.1 per cent to 5 per cent during the same period, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry stated today.
In 2018-2019, India recorded RTE exports of $766 million, which rose to USD 825 million in 2019-20 and $1043 million in 2020-21. Meanwhile, the RTC food products recorded an export of $473 million in 2018-19, $368 million in 2019-20 and $560 million in 2020-21.
The RTS food category registered an export of $436 million in 2018-19, $461 million in 2019-20 and $511 million in 2020-21.
The products covered under RTE category, includes Biscuits & Confectionery, Jaggery, Breakfast Cereals, Wafers, Indian Sweets and Snacks, Pan Masala and Betal Nuts etc. The Biscuits and Confectionery and Indian Sweets and Snacks constitute a major share of 89% in the RTE export in 2020-21.
The share of each category in RTE export are 52.32% (Biscuits & Confectionery), 1.52% (Jaggery), 4.11% (breakfast cereals), 1.73% (wafers), 37.04% (Indian sweets and snacks), and 3.28% (Pan Masala and Betal nuts).
The growth rate of RTE in 2020-21 against previous year was 26% while growth in Biscuits & Confectionery category recorded at 28.87%, Jaggery at 48.18%, Breakfast Cereals at 4.24%, Indian sweets and snacks at 29.75%, Pan Masala and B’nuts at 4.2% for the same period.
Notably more than 56% of RTE food products were exported to top 10 countries in 2020-21. USA is the top importing country in four categories of RTE products such as Biscuits & Confectionery ($79.54 million), Breakfast cereals ($5.33 million), Indian sweets and snacks ($99.7 million), Pan Masala & Betal Nuts ($5.95 million) while the remaining two products under RTE are significantly imported by Malaysia and Nepal. Malaysia imported Jaggery worth of $5.09 million and Nepal imported Wafers worth of $3.5 million in 2020-21.
The major destination of RTE export as per 2020-21 data are U.S.A (18.73%), U.A.E (8.64%), Nepal (5%), Canada (4.77%), Sri Lanka (4.47%), Australia (4.2%), Sudan (2.95%), U.K (2.88%), Nigeria (2.38%), Singapore (2.01%).
The RTC food products have been growing at CAGR of 7 per cent in the last one decade and the share of RTC in APEDA export has increased from 1.8 per cent to 2.7 per cent in the same periods. The major categories of food products covered under RTC are ready to cook, papad, flours and milled products and powder and starch. The category-wise share in RTC export is ready to cook (31.69%), papad (9.68%), flours and milled products (34.34%) and powder & starch (24.28%).
The growth rate of RTC in 2020-21 against previous year is 52 per cent while category wise growth rate of RTC is highest for powder and starch (174%) followed by Flours and Milled Products (36%), Ready to Cook (35%) and Papad (19%) in 2020-21 against previous year.
Above 74% of RTC food products were exported to top 10 countries in 2020-21 and USA is the top importing country of Flours and Milled Products and Ready to Cook from India in 2020-21 while two countries namely UK and Indonesia are at the top in importing of Papad and Powder & Starch during 2020-21.
The major exporting destination for RTC export in 2020-21 are U.S.A ($18.62 million), Malaysia ($11.52 million), U.A.E ($8.75 million), Indonesia ($7.52 million), UK ($7.33 million), Nepal ($5.89 million), Canada ($4.31 million), Australia (USD 4.2 million), Bangladesh ($3.43 million) and Qatar ($2.76 million).
In the category of RTS, the export has been growing at an CAGR of 11 per cent in the last one decade. The major final food products under the RTS category include jellies, squash & juices, other beverages, energy products/drinks and ice cream, soups, sauces, pasta and seasoning. The share of RTS has increased from 1.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent in last one decade.
The growth rate of RTS in 2020-21 against previous year (2019-20) is 11 per cent while category-wise growth rate of RTS is highest for Energy Products/Drinks (31.10%) followed by Ice Cream, Soups, Sauces, Pasta and Seasoning (19.34%), other beverages (14.12%).
– global bihari bureau
