Business Standard, July 2025: Exporters seek early roll-out of promotion schemes to counter sluggish global demand and offset earlier tariff shocks.

It’s a familiar plea. The call for incentives is perennial, especially when external winds blow cold—be it Trump’s tariffs, shipping disruptions, or shifting global preferences. But before we reach for the subsidy switch, perhaps we should ask: is it just the tariff wall keeping us out—or the silence within our own corridors?

Take this season. India sits on 25 million tonnes of surplus rice. Not as a one-time accident, but a recurring scene, year after year. Our Green Revolution, buffer norms, and procurement policies have ensured we never go hungry. Yet the grain that could feed the world often rots or remains locked behind red tape. The world may be hungry—but our systems aren’t hungry enough for markets.

This isn’t a supply problem. It’s a story of infrastructure and intent.

We Grew the Grain. But Did We Build the Bridge?

To move 25 million tonnes of rice swiftly to global buyers, you need more than stock. You need soft and hard infrastructure in sync. Bulk grain silos to hold and preserve. Grain wagons and inland freight corridors to move without bottlenecks. Port-side silos to ensure ships don’t wait for sack-loads.

Most of this has existed on blueprints for over a decade. Yet pilot projects remain just that—pilots.

How Smaller Players Pulled Ahead

In 2023–24, India’s fresh fruit and vegetable exports stood at US$1.8 billion. Not negligible—but hardly the mark of an agricultural powerhouse. Contrast this with the Netherlands, a country smaller than Gujarat, which shipped €8.7 billion worth of vegetables and €7.7 billion in fruit in the same period. Chile moved over US$7 billion in fresh fruit; Peru crossed US$6 billion in fruits alone—within an impressive US$12.8 billion Agro-export basket. These countries didn’t grow more—they simply built better systems. They invested in cold chains, streamlined port linkages, and predictable execution. The result? Farm to ship in hours—not weeks. In India, by the time the mango is packed, the buyer has moved on.

Start with What Goes In

Before we fixate on what goes out, we should rethink what comes in. No exporter can build a world-class product with mediocre inputs. Yet that’s often the reality in India, where importing raw materials means battling duty structures, documentation, and batch-size economics. Most global suppliers won’t ship small lots. Indian manufacturers can’t afford full shiploads. That’s a standoff with no winner.

SEZs Need Rewiring, Not Just Reforms

We’ve treated SEZs as walled export enclaves, but perhaps it’s time they evolved into Commodity Centres.  We need to repurpose our SEZs and FTWZs into smart Commodity Centres. Let Canadian Maple and Russian Fir arrive near our furniture clusters. Let West African cotton and Australian barley be stocked for ready purchase by garment units and breweries. Let Egyptian yarn be inspected, stored, and drawn in lots—without chartering a vessel each time. If the global market is moving towards agility and traceability, we can’t be shuffling half-truck loads through four layers of customs. Bring the world’s best inputs to our producers’ doorstep—and let them focus on quality, not clearance.

When Trade Needs a Platform, Not Just a Price

This is not just an input issue—it’s a trust issue. Take Tirupur, where knitting mills desperately need long-staple cotton. Producers in Benin and Burkina Faso have it. Indian mills want it. Yet only very few deals happen. Why? Because transactions today rely on emails, informal brokers, and guesswork. Sellers fear delayed payments. Buyers fear poor quality. Everyone fears the paperwork.

A port-side commodity hub, with verified warehousing, inspection protocols, secure payment channels, and institutional oversight, would change the game. When goods are visible, inspectable, and certifiable, buyers act quickly. Sellers sleep better. Trade becomes a business decision—not a gamble.

This logic extends beyond cotton. Think battery components, chemical precursors, motor assemblies, or even oats and pulses. A buyer in Delhi may be happy to switch from Ukrainian barley to Egyptian. But not if it means a three-week wait, unpredictable clearance, and crossed fingers on quality. A professionally run physical trade platform eases that friction—and puts Indian manufacturing in sync with global supply chains.

Coastal Shipping: A Missed Opportunity at Sea

With a 7,500 km coastline, India should’ve had the world’s most efficient coastal grid. Instead, grain and container movement still prefers congested highways. Small ports lack customs infrastructure; coastal shipping remains buried in concept notes.

Vietnam, by contrast, built inland waterway logistics into its export strategy. Bangladesh created SEZs with simplified input access. Neither waited for perfection. They just acted and are making us catch up.

The Quiet Work That Still Needs Doing

Let’s be clear. Export promotion isn’t just about market access or tariff deals. It’s about enabling systems at home. A few areas where what needs quiet but urgent attention:

• Grain infrastructure: Build multi-modal silos, grain wagons, and port silos for cereals, pulses, and oilseeds.
• Import facilitation: Reform SEZ/FTWZ rules to allow stocking of global inputs for Indian industries.
• Logistics digitization: Link rail, port, and warehousing digitally—minimize paperwork and physical barriers.
• Outcome-based rating: Judge schemes not by MOUs signed but by actual exports, jobs created, and inputs diversified.

Tariffs May Come and Go. Indifference Stays Longer

Yes, India should press for better trade terms. Yes, Trump-style tariffs hurt. And yes, we need support schemes. But none of it matters if the goods never leave the yard.

What the world needs from us today isn’t more goods. It’s reliable delivery, flexible sourcing, and predictable execution.

The global buyer is still listening. But are we ready to speak in the language of logistics, quality, and speed?

Because unless we match export talk with project execution, these “roll-outs” will end up like yet another election manifesto—spirited in promise, vague in plan, and forgotten the morning after.