Maersk Line has published its India trade report for the first half of 2016, showing that the country's containerised foreign trade volume registered a growth of 11 per cent in the opening six months of the year.
This increase is significantly higher than the 6 per cent registered last year during the same period of time. For the full year India could clock four times the growth of global trade.
The top export commodity by growth volumes was Vegetables at 56 per cent, followed by fruit and nuts at 42 per cent. Within Fruits, grapes witnessed the strongest growth at 180 per cent.
“Regardless the great local harvest this season, India has benefited from both a short season in South Africa and a shift in focus of South American grape exporters to the US market for better price realisation,' explained Franck Dedenis, Maersk Line managing director for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 'It has also helped that Indian exporters adopted international certifications like The Thompson and GlobalGAP, one of the key requirements for exporting grapes to European markets.'
On the import side fruit and nuts registered a growth of 87 per cent due to items like cashews coming to India from Africa and apples from North America and China among others.
