An Assessment of Export Performance and Trade Competitiveness of Sorghum from India

Abstract

The present study examines the trade performance, competitiveness and trade directions of sorghum. The secondary data was collected from ITC Trade Map, focusing on global and Indian sorghum exports and imports performance from 2012 to 2022. The analytical tools like Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Markov Chain analysis, and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) are employed. USA, Australia, and Argentina are major sorghum exporters, while China, Japan and Spain are importers in the world. UAE, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia are prominent destinations for Indian sorghum exports. Among the top five sorghum exporting nations, USA ranks first in all the indices of relative competitiveness demonstrating country’s potential to export sorghum in global market which is followed by Australia. Transitional probability matrix indicated that Bangladesh is the most stable market among the importers of sorghum followed by Saudi Arabia and UAE. On the other hand, Kuwait and Egypt has shown ‘zero’ probability of retention, indicating that these countries are unstable importers. The HHI for global sorghum exports and imports are indicating high concentration. In the case of Indian sorghum exports, the HHI means that there is moderate concentration. To reduce reliance on a small number of nations and to take advantage of the possibilities of a variety of markets, efforts should be made to increase India's sorghum exports. More research is recommended on the suitability of different varieties of sorghum to varying environmental conditions so that the best variety could be determined to further enhance production.