Analysis of Growth Performance, Potential and Competitiveness of Tomato Export from India

Abstract

This paper aims at analysis of trade direction and competitiveness of tomato export from India. In order to evaluate export performance the study used compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and Cuddy-Della Valle Index, while Markov Chain approach was employed to study the structural composition of export, whereas Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA)  and comparative export performance (CEP) were employed to assess export competitiveness. This study was based on the secondary time series data and carried out at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhnd during period from 2022 to 2023. Though India ranks second in production of tomato worldwide, but a limited demand for Indian tomato in the international market is a bitter reality. The study indicated that during the study period, Bangladesh emerged as the most reliable market for Indian tomato on the other hand, Oman was found to be the most unstable destination. India had a strong comparative advantage in tomato export to Nepal and Bangladesh. However, the CEP index indicates that major exporters like Morocco, Mexico, Spain, Turkey and Netherlands had outperformed India in the global market. In order to enhance export competitiveness and tomato export in world market improvement in infrastructure facilities like development of cold chain, creation of processing and value adding facilities is badly needed. To ensure quality improvement to meet international market standards provision of better port facilities is also warranted. There is need to rethink production and export methods, aiming for more skill and knowledge intensive approaches to flourish in the highly competitive global market.