Indian Q3 Exports Up by 6%. 2023 Year-Total 2% Ahead of 2022 and Only 1% Behind 2021.

With an increase of 6%, the Indian export volume in 2023 outperformed the export volume in 2022. With a drop of 2%, the export volume only falls slightly behind the volume of 2021. Remember that 2021 was India’s record year in terms of its export volume.

Looking in detail at what happened in Q3, we can see that while August’s export volume fell 14% behind 2022, in August, we witnessed a 17% increase, and in September, even a 19% year-on-year increase in export volume. August and September export volumes even outperformed exports in the same months in 2021, resulting in an insignificant gap in the export volume between Q3 2021 and Q3 2023. Of course, the unexpectedly large export volume comes at the cost of low prices, but at least prices seem to have stabilized at the end of Q3. Looking at raw L. vannamei exports, the average price per kg dropped from $6.55 to $6.29 from July to August but then slightly improved to $6.32 in September.

To get a bit more detail, Let’s break down exports into the main product categories: 

1. Raw L. vannamei (HS03061720)
   • Q1 exports were up 20% Y-on-Y
   • Q2 exports were down 12% Y-on-Y
   • Q3 exports are up 5% Y-on-Y
   • Year-total exports of raw L. vannamei are up 2%.
   • Raw L. vannamei accounts for 86% of India’s total exports in 2023. This is similar to 2022, but down from 90% in 2021. 
2. Raw P. monodon (HS03061740)
   • Q1 exports were up 161% Y-on-Y
   • Q2 exports were down 115% Y-on-Y
   • Q3 exports are up 55% Y-on-Y
   • Year-total exports of raw P. monodon are up 91%
   • Raw P. monodon accounts for 5% of India’s total exports in 2023. This is up from 2% in 2022 and 1% in 2021. 
3. Value-added L. vannamei and P. monodon (HS160521/29)
   • Q1 exports were down 17% Y-on-Y
   • Q2 exports were down 14% Y-on-Y
   • Q3 exports are down 3% Y-on-Y
   • Year-total exports of value-added L. vannamei and P. monodon are down 18%
   • Value-added exports account for 9% of India’s total exports in 2023. This is down from 11% in 2022 and up from 8% in 2021.