The paper has looked into the composition and direction of India's horticultural trade and the comparative advantage that India enjoys in selected markets with respect to its competitors. The commodity-wise analysis has revealed that India's major trading partners in the world for major horticultural products are the neighbouring and middle-east countries. The unit price realization from horticultural exports to these countries has been generally found lower as compared to that from the European countries, USA and Japan. The empirical findings have realed that India does not have comparative advantage in the export of horticultural commodities to selected markets. For example, for fresh grapes, countries like Australia, South Africa and USA have depicted higher competitive advantage over India in the Asia market. In case of onion exports, India does not enjoy comparative advantage over its main competitor Egypt in the GCC market, but has shown higher edge over Turkey and Iran in recent periods. In flower exports, the Netherlands, Colombia and Israel have significant comparative advantage over India in the EU market. The study has observed adverse impact of SPS standards stipulated by the USA and EU on India's horticultural export as shown by higher number of rejections of consignments and notifications issued by the US and EU markets, respectively. The study has suggested establishment of modern monitoring and testing facilities to increase India's exports.
Horticultural trade, unit value realization, revealed comparative advantage, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, import detentions
