India’s Exports Rise 13.5% in April, But Most of the Farm Exports Decline

Despite the West Asia crisis, India exported goods and services worth $80.80 billion in April, the first month of the financial year 2026-27. This included merchandise exports worth $43.56 billion and services exports worth $37.24 billion. Compared to exports worth $71.13 billion in April 2025, exports registered an increase of 13.59 percent.

According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, imports during the previous month stood at $88.61 billion, including merchandise imports worth $71.94 billion and services imports worth $16.66 billion. Total imports in April 2025 were $82.29 billion.

Although overall exports rose by 13.5 percent, exports of most agricultural products recorded a decline. Rice, which accounts for the largest share among agricultural exports, also witnessed a fall. Rice exports declined by 6.16 percent from $1081.56 million to $1014.97 million. Compared to April 2025, tea exports fell by 17.81 percent, tobacco by 40.38 percent, spices by 6.80 percent, cashew by 13.97 percent, and oil meal exports by 15.88 percent. Fruit and vegetable exports also declined by 21.08 percent.

Among the agricultural products that recorded export growth, other cereals topped the list. Their exports increased by 210.19 percent. However, the total export value of these products stood at only $55.39 million. Besides this, coffee exports increased by 7.51 percent, marine products by 14.74 percent, and exports of meat, dairy and poultry products by 48.03 percent.

As far as imports are concerned, vegetable oil imports rose by 39.86 percent to reach $1722.77 million. Imports of fruits and vegetables also increased by 45.59 percent to $337.68 million. However, imports of pulses declined by 29.69 percent. Pulse imports fell from $314.45 million in April 2025 to $221.08 million in April 2026.

Imports of crude and manufactured fertilizers increased by 2.76 percent. These rose from $653.64 million to $671.66 million.

The highest imports were of crude oil and petroleum products, amounting to $18.62 billion. However, these recorded a decline of 10 percent. On the other hand, gold imports increased by 81 percent and silver imports by more than 157 percent. Gold imports rose from $3097 million to $5626.87 million. Similarly, silver imports increased from $159.85 million to $411.06 million. Considering the pressure on foreign exchange reserves, the government had only two days ago increased the import duty on gold and silver from 6 percent to 9 percent.