Ostensibly due to measures initiated by the Uttar Pradesh government to boost the industrial sector and to push the Make in India initiative during the last four-and-a-half years, there has been an unprecedented rise in exports from the state in the current financial year.

According to latest data released by the Union Government on exports from various states, UP exported goods worth Rs 21,500.85 crore in April and May this year, up 152.67 per cent as compared to last year. During the corresponding period last year, goods worth Rs 8,511.34 crore were exported from Uttar Pradesh. Even during the pandemic, leather, textile and products were exported and there was huge demand for a wide range of products from the state in the overseas market.

To further promote exports, the State Government has decided to set up Overseas Trade Promotion and Facilitation Centres in all 75 districts of the state. The MSME department plans to set up a centralised facilitation centre for better coordination among these centres which will increase the worth of exports by at least Rs 400 crore and also provide EMPLOYMENT to about 4,000 people.

Uttar Pradesh ranks sixth among the major exporting states of India and the state ranks after Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The state is ahead of several states, including among others Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Orissa, Telangana, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

This year too, a lot of goods like carpets, rugs, textile fabric, oven fabric, man-made staple fabric, footwear, glassware, iron, steel, aluminum, rice, sugar, milk, flour, plastic products, silk, artificial flowers have been exported to different parts of the world. Nepal, Bangladesh and countries of South East Asia imported a large number of ODOP products from UP during the pandemic.

In fact, footwear and toy exports shot up from Rs 147.04 crore and Rs 26.19 crore in April-May last year to Rs 742.47 crore and Rs 120.83 crore respectively in 2021. Similarly, glassware exports increased from Rs 39.99 crore during the same period last year to Rs 310.77 crore this year. Furthermore, carpets and textile fabrics worth Rs 744.15 crore were exported this year as against Rs 247.63 crore the previous year. Similarly, the export of leather products also saw a steep upswing from Rs 79.21 crore last year to Rs 493.80 crore in 2021.