NEW DELHI: The continued attempts at diversification of Indian exports has led to significant expansion of products and market footprint in 2025-26 generating additional exports of $ 202.2 million
The strongest value contribution to the diversification came from advanced engineering and industrial sectors. “The trend highlights a gradual shift from traditional commodity-led expansion toward broader participation across high-value manufacturing, engineering, agri-processing, and technology-intensive sectors,” a commerce ministry analysis said.
Ship, Boat and Floating Structures emerged as the single largest contributor, generating $ 57 million across 19 new markets, reflecting India’s growing competitiveness in specialized maritime manufacturing. Similarly, Nuclear Reactors, Industrial Boilers & Parts recorded $ 14.3 million across 13 new markets, while Telecom Instruments expanded into 20 new markets with exports of US $ 5.8 million, indicating increasing integration into global industrial and technology supply chains.
Overall exports of ship, boat and floating structures in FY 26 was $ 4.1 billion. Nuclear Reactors, Industrial Boilers and Parts recorded growth of 17% to $ 831 million in FY 26 while telecom instruments exports grew 31.2% to $ 34.2 billion.
Agriculture and food products also witnessed broad-based diversification. Products such as Fresh Fruits gained $ 18 million across 8 new markets, Rice (other than Basmati) earned $ 3.6 million from 14 new markets), Marine Products ($ 3.4 million across 17 new markets), and Pulses ($ 4.1 million across 18 new markets) demonstrated rising demand for Indian food exports across newer destinations.
Traditional labour-intensive sectors continued to expand geographically, though with relatively lower export values. Handloom Products entered the highest number of new markets (29) followed by other oil seeds (24), accumulators and batteries (22), and Bicycle and Parts (22), reflecting India’s continued strength in MSME- and employment-intensive exports, the ministry’s analysis said
Several emerging sectors also gained traction in new markets, including Aircraft and Spacecraft Parts, Railway Transport Equipment, Graphite and Explosives, and Consumer Electronics, pointing toward a gradual broadening of India’s advanced manufacturing export base.
Overall exports of aircraft, spacecraft parts were $ 1.6 billion in 2025-26 and railway transport equipment saw overall shipments of $ 504 million.
The year also saw new regions consolidating their share of India’s exports. Among different regions, overall exports to North-East Asia surged 21.6% to $ 41.6 billion, raising the region’s share to 9.4% of India’s total exports.
Africa also emerged as a major growth frontier. Exports to East Africa increased by 13.7% to US $ 12.6 billion, accounting for 2.9% of India’s exports, while North Africa rose 14.8% to US $ 8 billion with a 1.8% share.
Latin America maintained healthy expansion as exports rose 7.8% to $ 16.4 billion, contributing 3.7% to India’s total exports.
North America continued to dominate India’s export basket with exports of $ 97.7 billion accounting for 22.1% of total exports, growth remained relatively moderate at 1.3% YoY, which indicates a mature but resilient demand base.
Source: The Financial Express
