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Unit 8: Foreign Trade of India

good market place for British companies. So at the time of our freedom our exports were Notes
primarily of main goods and imports were of makers. At the time of independence, agricultural
supplies and light manmade consumer goods controlled India’s export basket. During the
post-independence period India’s arrangement of exports altered.
Now exports of India are broadly classified into following four categories:

Figure 8.1: Classification of Exports of India

Table below shows composition of India’s export from 1990-91 to 2005-06:

Table 8.1: Composition of India’s Exports
Commodity Group Percentage Share
1990-91 2005-06
Agricultural & Allied Products 19.5 10.2
Ores and Minerals 4.4 5.2
Manufactured Goods 73.0 72.0
Crude & Petroleum Product 2.9 11.5
Other Unclassified items 0.2 1.1
100.0 100.0

Source: Economic Survey 2003-07
The arrangement of India’s export can be summarised as follows:
1. Agricultural and Allied Products: The share of agriculture substances in the total exports
of India has dropped from 1990-91 to 2005-06. The part of agriculture exports was 19.5% in
1990-91. It originated about 10.2% in 2005-06.
The top items of agriculture exports consist of:
Fish Products,
Rice,

Oil Cakes, and
Fruits and Vegetables.
The most important export item in ‘Agriculture and Allied products’ group over the
period 1991-92 to 2005-06 has been ‘Fish and Fish Preparations’. From $ 585 million in
1991-92 export pays from fish and fish preparations rose to $ 1,589 million in 2005-06. On
the other hand, in percentage terms, their portion fell marginally from 3.3 per cent in
1991-92 to 1.5 per cent in 2005-06.
As far as agricultural exports are worried, an important progress during the period since
1991 has been the significant exports of rice in certain year. In fact, exports of rice were as

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