Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Mansoor Hussain, SA Wani, FA Shaheen, Abid Sultan and Furqan Hamid

Abstract:
Apricot is an important horticultural crop of Ladakh and is one of the major producers growing more than half of the India’s supply. Though Ladakh is the largest producer of the wide varieties of apricot, the region is not a major player in the export market, either fresh apricot, dried and processed apricot products. Ladakh has the opportunity to speed up the supply as it has comparative advantage in production of apricot. In order to achieve it, assessment of export competitiveness is needed. This paper evaluates the level of competitiveness for Indian apricots among other competitors and opportunities in world market to identify the new destination for Indian apricot. The findings show that the United States of America, Germany, France and U.K. are the major apricot importing countries of the world accounting 37.3% the total world imports of apricot. Share of Indian apricot in these countries is very nominal & these can be the new Destination of Indian apricot export. The result of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), comprising 9 major global exporters, shows that India has very less comparative advantage in apricot export. Based on the domestic price and International Unit price and reference price, Nominal Protection of Coefficient (NPC) shows that India is not enjoying competitiveness at international level because domestic prices of mango are higher than the International Prices. Only few years have shown competitiveness, may be due to higher production of mango in these particular years which increased the supply and decreased the price of mango in domestic market. Of the explanatory variables specified in the gravity model, Per Unit Price and Per Capita GDP of importing partners of India were found significant factors determining apricot export.