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India's pharmaceutical export goes up by 28% in April-Dec 2008

Sanjay Pingle, Mumbai | Monday, April 13, 2009, 08:00 Hrs [IST]

Pharmaceutical exports from India increased by 28.1 per cent during the first nine months ended December 2008 to Rs 36,878 crore from Rs 28,786 crore in the corresponding period of last year. As per the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) the exports in December 2008 went up sharply by 80.4 per cent to Rs 4,934 crore from Rs 2,735 crore. The exports to top 25 countries contributed over 66 per cent at Rs 24,389 crore as against 52 per cent to Rs 19,183 crore. In dollar terms, the exports have recorded 21 per cent growth from $6.98 billion to $8.45 billion.

Despite economic slowdown and stiff competition, the exports during the first nine months of 2008-09 in the US moved up by 23.1 per cent to Rs 6,657 crore from Rs 5,409 crore in the same period of last year. The exports to US worked out to 18.1 per cent of the total exports. Russia stood second largest destination for Indian pharma exports with strong growth of 24.9 per cent to Rs 1500.25 crore as against Rs 1201.31 crore in the last period. However, Russian exports contributed only 4.1 per cent to Indian pharma exports.

The exports to Austria touched to Rs 1,389 crore with a share of 3.8 per cent in India's pharma exports and it overtook figures of German exports during the period under review. Germany's exports declined by 3.8 per cent to Rs 1,352 crore from Rs 1,405 crore in the corresponding period of last year. Exports to China also declined by 13.8 per cent to Rs 601 crore from Rs 697 crore.

As per the DGCI&S export data, the Indian exports to Kenya increased sharply by 73.3 per cent to Rs 550.13 crore during the April-December 2008. Further, export to South Africa has also taken a quantum jump of 71.9 per cent to Rs 1068.19 crore from Rs 621.52 crore in the same period of last year. The growth of exports to UAE and Thailand remained at single digit at 0.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively. Austria, Belgium, France and Hungary entered the list of top 25 export oriented countries during the period ended December 2008.

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