Growth, instability and competitiveness in exports of sugar and cotton from India

The study examines the growth rate and instability and the comparative advantage of sugar and cotton exports and imports of India during 2001-02 to 2019-20. Findings of the study show that sugar and cotton export from India to the world increased at the rate of 13.54 and 26.93 percent per annum, with high instability index of 48.66 and 47.80 percent during the study periods. In the case of cotton exports, all destinations were found to have positive and significant growth. India’s total sugar imports, Brazil supplied around 80 percent during the study period, which registered the highest and most significant growth of 62.89 percent with the highest instability of 75.74 percent. Our cotton imports are of extra long staple variety, which is not produced in sufficient quantity in India. The value of revealed comparative advantage for Brazil and Thailand were greater than India so they were major competitors for India in sugar exports during the study period. In contrast, Exports competitiveness of Indian cotton was increased from 2007 because of the value of RCA registered greater than unity.