India is opening up the possibilities for exporters

On September 9-16 a trade mission will commence to the Republic of India in New Delhi and Mumbai in particular. The preparation has been taking place for several months by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, the Export Promotion Office with the help from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine and the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.

This has been declared by Olga Trofimtseva the Deputy Minister in charge of issues related to the European integration of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine in her blog in one of the internet publications.

“It is no coincidence that we have chosen this country. India is an agro-industrial state that shows signs of rapid development. For example, the growth of GDP in 2015 was 7.3%, but the agriculture industry is not quite mechanized, what is more striking, that India all in one is a large producer and importer of agricultural produce. 30% of the total export of Ukrainian crude sunflower seed oil is destined to the market of India”, has been noted by Olga Trofimtseva and, furthermore, this country is the number one importer of Ukrainian agrarian goods, according to her words.

The Deputy Minister has declared: “case in point, in 2016 the trade flow reached 1.68 billion US dollars out of which the Ukrainian export has been 1.58 billion US dollars, while in the first half of 2017 India imported our goods worth 1.04 billion US dollars.” She also clarified that the key Ukrainian export agro goods to India were: oil – 807.69 million US dollars; grains – 187.5 million US dollars; residue and food-industry waste – 24.41 million US dollars; vegetables – 13.55 million US dollars; and animal fats & oils – 1.28 million US dollars.

“The general trade situation is reasonably good, nevertheless, we see that for some agro-products there is room to increase exports to India. Some market research and assessments suggest, there will be demand for skimmed milk, dried vegetables, pulses, walnuts, sunflower oil, and rapeseed oil. Apart from those, Ukrainian juices, yeast, grape wine, pure alcohol, mill and fine offals, grains and oil seeds can be quite competitive as well”, Olga Trofimtseva said, and added, however, the Indian market is far from being an easy one, proactive government approach and  persistent business’ efforts open up vast opportunities for exporters.

“If we touch the agro and food industry of Ukraine, unfortunately, we are not recognized enough in India by our potential customers, therefore, our main task as the trade mission is to inform the Indian partners of our advantages and competitive edge in the possibilities of doing business with Ukraine regarding a certain range of products, goods, and commodities”, Olga Trofimtseva stated. In the end, the Deputy Minister emphasize that the trade mission will include numerous B2B meetings between the businessmen of both countries and high-level contacts of government officials.