See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: [Link]

net/publication/46534910

Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India: Performance, Destinations,

Competitiveness and Determinants

Article in Agricultural Economics Research Review · January 2008

Source: RePEc

CITATIONS READS

42 4,267

3 authors:

Nalini Ranjan Kumar Awadhesh Bahadur Rai

ICAR- National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi Indian Institute of Vegetable Research
133 PUBLICATIONS 990 CITATIONS 262 PUBLICATIONS 2,549 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Mathura Rai
Indian Institute of Vegetable Research
153 PUBLICATIONS 2,895 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Nalini Ranjan Kumar on 07 March 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Agricultural Economics Research Review
Vol. 21 January-June 2008 pp 130-138

Research Note

Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India: Performance,

Destinations, Competitiveness and Determinants

Nalini Ranjan Kumar*, A.B. Rai and Mathura Rai

Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Jakhini (Shahanshahpur), Varanasi - 221 305, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract
The performance, competitiveness, major destinations and determinants of cucumber and gherkin
export from India have been studied. Export performance ratio has been used to estimate the
competitiveness, and log linear type of demand function has been used to determine the export
determinants. It has been observed that India has made tremendous progress in the export of cucumber
and gherkin products during the past 15 years (1990-2005). The export has increased by about 128.5-
times with an impressive annual compound growth rate of 37.46 per cent, as against only 4.38 per
cent in the world market. The major export destinations for cucumber and gherkin have been identified
as France, USA, Russia, Belgium and Spain. An increasing and high value of revealed comparative
advantage (RCA) and a positive and increasing value for revealed symmetric comparative advantage
(RSCA) have indicated high potential in their export, particularly for the provisionally-preserved and
prepared/preserved products. One per cent increase in volume of international trade in cucumber and
gherkin may increase the demand from India by 5.96 per cent. This indicates that India is highly
competitive in export of cucumber and gherkin and has ample scope to further increase its export.
The study has also revealed that exchange rate is a more dominant determinant of export from India
than price of commodity.

Introduction per cent of the total gherkin production and Tamil

Nadu and Andhra Pradesh account for 20 per cent
Although India is a traditional producer of
each (Anonymous, 2005). It is not palatable with
cucumber, its export potential was discovered during
Indian taste, but is a major dietary constituent to
the late-1980s, and since then their exports have been
many European countries and the USA. Hence,
increasing progressively. When the cost of
almost the entire volume of gherkin produced in India
production of gherkins in the Europe became too
is exported, with little or no domestic demand, except
high, their production shifted to Turkey. Later,
for some five star hotels (Acharya, 2006).
Turkish farmers found tomato-growing to be more
profitable and shifted to tomato production In the emerging trade scenario, cost and quality
(Anonymous, 2007). Farmers in India seized upon of a commodity determine the flow and dynamics
this opportunity to produce gherkins. The production of its trade in the world market. India with favourable
of gherkins in India is concentrated in the three agro-climatic conditions and surplus labour has the
southern states, viz. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and potential to produce high-quality gherkin round the
Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka accounts for almost 60 year and has the capacity to export it to the
*Author for correspondece, Email: nrkumar85@[Link] international market. Gherkin satisfies all the criteria
This paper has been drawn from the on going research project described by Vyas (1994) for the export-orientation,
entitled “Assessment of Marketing System and Projection viz. a genuine and growing surplus after meeting
for Vegetables Export from India” at the Institute domestic requirements, favourable ratio of export
 Kumar et al. : Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India 131

to domestic price, and growing international demand. Advantage (RCA). If EPR/RCA is greater than unity,
The Govt. of India has rightly identified the export the country has comparative advantage in export of
potential of this commodity and has established Agri- the commodity. As suggested by Laursen (1998),
Export Zones (AEZs) for the crop in the states of RCA was made symmetric by obtaining the index as
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. (RCA-1/RCA+1). This index is known as Revealed
Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) and
Keeping in view the vast export potential in of
varies from -1 to +1. The annual compound growth
cucumber and gherkin, it is pertinent to analyse their
rate (ACGR) for India vis-à-vis world was computed
export performance and identify factors affecting it.
to examine the trends in export of cucumber and
There is also concern about the impact of trade
gherkin products.
liberalization on the export performance of
agricultural commodities. This paper has discussed Factors influencing the export of cucumber and
some of these issues with following specific gherkin products were identified using the log linear
objectives: (i) Export performance and type of demand function, as used by Shende and
competitiveness of cucumber and gherkin from India, Bhole (1999) and Kumar (2004) [Equation 2]:
(ii) Major destinations of Indian cucumber and Y= a T b1 (EP) b2 (ER) b3 Ui …(2)
gherkin products, and (iii) Identification of the
determinants of cucumber and gherkin export from where,
India. Y = India’s export of cucumber and gherkin
products (Mt)
Methodology
T = Total international trade in cucumber and
Time-series data on the export of cucumber and gherkin products (Mt)
gherkin products for India and world were obtained EP = Indian export price of gherkin products
from FAO Trade Yearbook as well as export statistics (US$/tonne)
of APEDA and Commodity Trade Statistics of UNO
ER = Exchange rate (Rs/US$)
by visiting their respective websites. The values of
export and imports have been referred in US dollars a = Intercept
to net out the effect of changes in exchange rate. To b i s = Elasticity of respective variables, and
study the performance and composition of exports U i = Random- error terms, ui ~N (0, ?2ui)
of different products of cucumber and gherkin, per
cent shares were worked out on triennium basis, Indian export prices and international prices for
gherkin products have been represented by their
considering the problems of wide fluctuations in the
respective unit values. The unit value of Indian export
value of export and imports. The Export Performance
was derived from the data on quantity and value of
Ratio (EPR) was estimated to examine the
gherkin products export available in the FAO Trade
comparative advantage of India in the export of
Yearbook and Commodity Trade Statistics of UNO.
cucumber and gherkin products, following the
The historical exchange rate data were obtained from
method suggested by Balassa (1965), using Equation
the website of Reserve Bank of India, Government
(1):
of India. The regression analysis was carried out for
EPR= Sit / S wt …(1) a time span of 15 years (1991-2005), using the
where, ordinary least squares (OLS) method.

Sit = Share of cucumber and gherkin products in Results and Discussion

India’s total export, and
Production and Trade Performance
Swt = Share of cucumber and gherkin products in
the total world exports. Composition of Cucumber and Gherkin Export
Since EPR is based on the observed pattern of India has been exporting cucumber since long,
trade flows, it is also called Revealed Comparative though in small quantities and irregularly. The
132 Agricultural Economics Research Review Vol. 21 January-June 2008

gherkin exports from India are of recent origin. The from 0.24 thousand tonnes during TE 1993 to 90.14
exports of major products of cucumber and gherkin thousand tonnes during TE 2005. The ‘provisionally-
from 1991 to 2005, in quantitative and value terms, preserved’ category dominated the export basket
have been presented in Table 1. from TE 1993 to TE 2002. During TE 2005,
Indian exports in cucumber and gherkin were ‘prepared/preserved’ category emerged as the largest
categorized as ‘fresh’, ‘prepared/ preserved’ and contributor to exports with 58 per cent share,
‘provisionally preserved’. The export of cucumber followed by ‘provisionally-preserved’ (35%)
and gherkin products has increased from an average and ‘fresh’ (7%) categories. Thus, export from India
of 1.21 thousand tonnes in triennium ending (TE) has increased more rapidly of the processed products.
1993 to 155.46 thousand tonnes in TE 2005; and in However, the declining trends in unit value
value terms, from US$ 0.73 million to US $ 66.37 realization from the exports of all the products from
million. The export in all the three categories of US$ 662.64/t during TE1993 to US$ 421.5/t during
cucumber and gherkin, except the ‘fresh’ category TE 2005 indicate the falling profit margins from
has consistently increased. In the case of ‘fresh’ their export. It may be due to the fact that after
category, export increased from 0.10 thousand tonnes India’s entry into the international market during
during TE1993 to 18.98 thousand tonnes during TE 1980s, there was a big increase in the supply side,
2002 but declined to 10.88 thousand tonnes per which led to a decline in the prices of these
annum during TE 2005. The decline in export of commodities. Also, even after implementation of
‘fresh’ category may be attributed to the increase in Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) under the aegis
export of ‘preserved or provisionally-preserved’ of WTO, developed countries are maintaining
category due to better profit realization in the large support to their agriculture by taking the
processed products. It is also evident from the fact advantage of complex categorization of support in
that unit value realization from export of ‘fresh’ exempt categories (Chand and Phillip, 2001). In this
cucumber and gherkin declined from Rs17.02/kg
regard, it has been shown that the recent level of
during 2002 to Rs13.64/kg during 2005.
support to agriculture by OECD countries in most
Exports in ‘prepared/preserved’ have registered cases was higher than what it was during the base
the highest growth during the period 1991 to 2005. year 1986-88 and 1998-2000 (Chand, 2002; NAAS,
In physical terms, the export increased 375.6-times, 2006).

Table 1. Composition of export of cucumber and gherkin from India, average for TE 1993 to 2005
(Quantity in ’000 tonnes and value in million US$)
Year Fresh Prepared/ preserved Provisionally preserved Total Unit value
Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value (US$/tonne)

TE 1993 0.10 0.04 0.24 0.22 0.88 0.47 1.21 0.73 662.6
(7.9) (5.1) (19.5) (29.8) (72.5) (64.7) (100.0) (100.0)
TE 1996 5.24 2.22 2.96 1.72 11.29 5.88 19.49 9.82 520.0
(26.9) (22.6) (15.2) (17.6) (57.9) (59.9) (100.0) (100.0)
TE 1999 7.96 3.30 8.19 4.42 23.82 12.40 39.97 20.12 505.5
(19.9) (16.4) (20.5) (21.9) (59.6) (61.6) (100.0) (100.0)
TE 2002 18.98 6.38 25.60 11.69 33.16 13.82 77.74 31.89 420.7
(24.4) (20.0) (32.9) (36.6) (42.6) (43.3) (100.0) (100.0)
TE 2005 10.88 3.65 90.14 37.81 54.44 24.92 155.46 66.37 421.5
(7.0) (5.5) (57.9) (56.9) (35.0) (37.5) (100.0) (100.0)
Source: Based on APEDA ([Link]
Note: Figures within the parentheses indicate the percentages to total
 Kumar et al. : Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India 133

Growth Rate in Export of Cucumber and preserved category. The unit value of export in all
Gherkin the three categories had registered a significantly
negative growth rate of 3.7 per cent per annum on
The annual compound growth rates (ACGR) for
overall basis, while for the world it had increased
production and export of cucumber and gherkin for
by 0.37 per cent per annum, though it is non-
India and the world pertaining to the period 1991-
significant. This indicates that value realization has
2005 have been presented in Table 2. The production
been decreasing for India and increasing for the
of cucumber and gherkin has increased at the per world. It may be due to the better quality of products
annum rate of 0.97 per cent in India and 6.32 per in other countries which fetch higher prices in the
cent for the world. Similarly, growth in area and yield international markets.
has also increased, though at a slower rate in India
than the world. India’s Share in World Trade of Selected
India has registered a significant ACGR in the Cucumber and Gherkin Products
export of all the three categories of cucumber and Share of India in the world export of these
gherkin products in comparison to the world. In the commodities during different years has been
case of ‘fresh‘ cucumber and gherkin, India has presented in Table 3. In the total export of all the
achieved an ACGR of 33.37 per cent in physical three products of cucumber and gherkin, India’s share
terms and 30.85 per cent in value terms, whereas in world export had increased from 0.09 per cent in
export growth in the world was of only 3.13 per cent TE 1993 to 6.69 per cent in TE 2005 in quantitative
in physical and 4.25 per cent in value terms. Among terms but increase in value terms was not impressive,
all the three categories of cucumber and gherkin, from 0.08 per cent during TE 1993 to 3.79 per cent
the preserved category had registered the highest during TE 2005. India had improved her share
ACGR of 48.17 per cent in physical and 43.76 per remarkably in the export of provisionally-preserved
cent in value terms, followed by provisionally- and prepared/preserved categories of cucumber and

Table 2. Annual compound growth rate in trade of cucumber and gherkin: 1991-2005
Particulars India World
Quantitative-terms Value-terms Quantitative-terms Value-terms

Area 0.87** 5.43**

Production 0.97** 6.32**
Export of fresh cucumber and gherkin
Export 33.37** 30.85** 3.13** 4.25**
Unit value -3.07** 1.12
Export of prepared/ preserved cucumber and gherkin
Export 48.17** 43.76** 8.64** 6.05**
Unit value -4.9** -2.59**
Export of provisionally- preserved cucumber and gherkin
Export 26.96** 24.95** 10.09** 9.19**
Unit value -2.02* -0.89*
Total export of cucumber and gherkin
Export 37.46** 33.74** 4.38** 4.75**
Unit value -3.70** 0.37
Note: * and ** indicate significance at 5 per cent and 1per cent levels of significance, respectively.
Source: Constructed from data of (1) FAO (2007) @ [Link]
(2) APEDA @ [Link] and
(3) [Link]
134 Agricultural Economics Research Review Vol. 21 January-June 2008

Table 3. Share of India in world export of cucumber and gherkin: 1991-2005

(in per cent)
Year Fresh Prepared/ preserved Provisionally-preserved Total
(in TE) Value Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity

1993 0.01 0.01 0.24 0.23 0.93 0.93 0.08 0.09

1996 0.29 0.41 0.78 1.15 8.49 8.77 0.91 1.16
1999 0.44 0.60 2.07 3.01 13.33 13.90 1.88 2.25
2002 0.74 1.30 5.76 8.32 13.58 15.89 2.76 3.95
2005 0.29 0.68 12.50 20.68 20.40 22.53 3.79 6.69
Source: Constructed from data of (1) FAO (2007) @ [Link]
(2) APEDA @ [Link] and
(3) [Link]

gherkin, in TE 1993 to 2005. Due to this high growth, the single largest importer of fresh cucumber and
India emerged as the largest exporter of these two gherkin from India with a share of 21 per cent,
products in the world in quantitative terms and 3rd followed by USA (14%), Spain (10.7%), Netherlands
largest, after Germany and Turkey, in the case of (8.5 %) and Belgium (7%), in quantitative terms.
prepared/preserved category of cucumber and France has also been the largest importer of
gherkin. It may be due to the better quality of these provisionally-preserved cucumber and gherkin
products. Hence, quality improvement needs a major during TE 2005-06 from India in value terms with a
emphasis in Indian products for fetching higher share of 19.9 per cent, followed by USA (19.39%),
prices. A mixed trend was observed in the case of Russia (8.61%), Belgium (2.61%) and Spain
fresh cucumber and gherkin, whose share first (1.03%). However in quantitative terms, Russia was
increased from 0.01 per cent during TE 1993 to 1.3 the biggest importer of provisionally-preserved
per cent during TE 2002 and then declined to 0.68 cucumber and gherkin, followed by Russia, France,
per cent during TE 2005. It may be due to less Spain and Belgium. These five countries jointly
availability of fresh cucumber and gherkin due to contributed about 78 per cent share in quantitative
terms and 81.5 per cent in value terms of total share
rise in demand of their provisionally-preserved and
of provisionally-preserved cucumber and gherkin
prepared products from India. Thus, it is required
export from India. Other important destinations were
that India should increase the production of
Estonia, Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Italy and
cucumber and gherkin to seize upon their fast
UK.
expanding world market. At present we are exporting
almost entire quantity of gherkin production. For prepared/preserved cucumber and gherkin,
Russia was the single largest exporter with about
Destinations of Indian Cucumber and Gherkin 46.0 per cent share in quantitative terms and 40.7
per cent share in value terms. The share of Russia
Difference in comparative advantage,
was higher than those of USA, France, Belgium and
geographical and political proximity and degree of
Spain taken together in both value and quantitative
trade barriers are the major determinants of
terms. The cumulative shares of these five countries,
destinations for exports of any food commody. The
in export of prepared/preserved cucumber and
country-wise share in the world exports of cucumber
gherkin from India were 78.24 per cent in
and gherkin products for the period TE 2005-06 have
quantitative and 77.34 per cent in value terms. Other
been presented in Table 4. France, USA, Belgium,
important destinations for it were Netherlands,
Spain and Netherlands have been the major importers
Australia, Estonia, Canada and Germany.
of fresh cucumber and gherkin from India and their
cumulative share was about 61 per cent of total Indian In terms of value realization of our exports,
export of cucumber and gherkin. France has been Belgium and France provided a better price for our
 Kumar et al. : Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India 135

Table 4. Major destinations for export of cucumbers and gherkin products from India
(Quantity in ’000 tones and value in million Rs)
Rank Country 2003-04 Percentage to total Average of TE 2005-06 Percentage of total
Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity Value

Fresh cucumber and gherkin

1 France 5 81.2 21.1 20.5 2.3 34.6 20.9 20.6
2 USA 3.5 59.9 14.6 15.1 1.5 24.4 14.1 14.5
3 Belgium 1.7 44.1 7.1 11.1 0.8 18.5 7.0 11
4 Spain 2.8 41.8 11.6 10.5 1.2 16.6 10.7 9.9
5 Netherland 2.1 39.2 8.6 9.9 0.9 15.1 8.5 9.0
6 Other countries 8.8 130.3 37.1 32.9 4.1 58.6 38.8 35.0
Total 23.9 396.5 100.1 100 10.8 167.8 100 100
Provisionally-preserved cucumber and gherkin
1 France 7.6 158.3 22 23.1 8.8 222.8 16.1 19.9
2 USA 8.2 153 23.8 22.3 11.1 216.9 20.5 19.4
3 Russia 2.1 36.6 6.1 5.3 11.9 208.2 22.0 18.6
4 Belgium 3.3 102.9 9.5 15.0 4.4 141 8.1 12.6
5 Spain 3.5 62.4 10.1 9.1 6.2 123.4 11.3 11.0
6 Other countries 9.7 173.3 28.5 25.2 12.0 206.5 22.0 18.5
Total 34.4 686.5 100 100 54.4 1118.8 100 100
Prepared/preserved cucumber/gherkin
1 Russia 14.7 222.7 23.3 18.6 41.2 689.1 45.9 40.7
2 USA 10.6 198.1 16.8 16.5 11.8 239.4 13.1 14.1
3 France 9.1 178.0 14.5 14.9 7.2 151.4 8.0 8.9
4 Belgium 3.9 111.7 6.3 9.3 5.0 127.3 5.5 7.5
5 Spain 6.7 132.6 10.6 11.1 5.2 102.5 5.8 6.1
6 Other countries 18 353.7 28.5 29.6 19.4 383.5 21.7 22.7
Total 63 1196.8 100 100 89.8 1693.2 100 100
Source: APEDA @ [Link]

cucumber and gherkin (Table 5). Therefore, there is International Competitiveness

a need to direct more of our export to these countries In the liberalized and globalized trade regime,
to get a higher price of our agri-products. countries having export competitiveness in the
France does not produce cucumber and gherkin, commodity will only survive in the long-term and
but is a large importer of small cucumber and gherkin shall harvest the benefits of trade. Therefore, to
or ‘Cornichons’, which they relish. Hungary, India ascertain the competitiveness of India in trade of
and Mexico are the main supplier-countries. cucumber and gherkin revealed comparative
Cornichons are in big demand and command a higher advantages (RCAs) and revealed symmetric
price due to their exclusive hand-harvesting and comparative advantages (RSCAs) were estimated for
different products of cucumber and gherkin and have
gourmet value (Anonymous, 2005). India has a
been presented in Table 6.
definite advantage in this field because of its
enormous human labour resource. It should take The results have indicated that India has been
appropriate steps to increase export of cucumber and highly competitive in the export of provisionally-
gherkin, particularly Cornichons, to these markets. preserved and prepared/preserved categories of
136 Agricultural Economics Research Review Vol. 21 January-June 2008

Table 5. Per unit value realization from export of total (‘fresh’, ‘prepared/ preserved’ and ‘provisionally-preserved’
products of cucumber and gherkin) to five major countries
(Quantity in ’000 tones and value in million Rs)
Sl Country Total export (total of ‘fresh’, ‘prepared/ preserved’ Per unit value
No. and ‘provisionally-preserved’) realization
Quantity Value (Rs/kg)

1 France 18.3 408.8 22.34

2 USA 24.4 480.7 19.70
3 Russia 54 912.4 16.90
4 Belgium 10.2 286.8 28.12
5 Spain 12.6 242.5 19.25
6 Others 35.5 648.6 18.27
7 Total 155 2979.8 19.22

Table 6. Revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) for
cucumber and gherkin:1991-2005
Year Fresh Provisionally-preserved Prepared / preserved Total
RCA RSCA RCA RSCA RCA RSCA RCA RSCA

1991 0.01 -0.98 0.00 -1.00 1.23 0.10 0.15 -0.75

1995 0.33 -0.50 14.09 0.87 0.75 -0.14 1.19 0.09
2000 0.48 -0.35 17.62 0.89 9.70 0.81 3.61 0.57
2001 1.12 0.05 15.48 0.88 5.96 0.71 3.36 0.54
2002 1.31 0.13 20.46 0.91 7.30 0.76 3.93 0.59
2003 0.92 -0.04 20.14 0.91 12.25 0.85 4.04 0.60
2004 0.19 -0.68 24.17 0.92 11.78 0.84 3.70 0.57
2005 0.04 -0.93 33.54 0.94 23.69 0.92 6.75 0.74
Source: Constructed from data of (1) FAO (2007) @ [Link]
(2) APEDA @ [Link] and
(3) [Link]

cucumber and gherkin and this competitiveness has Determinants of Export of Cucumber and
been increasing continuously with the passage of Gherkin from India
time. However, the results for fresh cucumber and
In order to identify the factors affecting the
gherkin have shown a mixed trend with comparative
export of cucumber and gherkin from India,
advantage in the years 2001 and 2002 only. In all
regression analysis was performed. On the basis of
other years, the values for RCAs are less than unity
best fit, log linear form was selected and the results
and negative for RSCAs. Thus, India should
have been presented in Table 7. The three basic
concentrate more on exporting of processed
determinants, viz. world market size, exchange rate,
cucumber and gherkin. Dev and Rao (2005) have
and Indian export price, could together explain 96
reported that farmers get more profit from cultivation
per cent of the total variation in export of cucumber
of cucumber and gherkin than other crops. Moreover,
and gherkin from India. The coefficients for all the
these crops being labour-intensive, could increase
variables, except Indian export price were found
employment opportunities to family labour as well
highly significant.
as to other labourers in the area. Therefore, export
of preserved cucumber and gherkin will enhance The estimate for international trade volume has
labour absorption in our labour-surplus country. shown that for 1 per cent increase in the world trade
 Kumar et al. : Export of Cucumber and Gherkin from India 137

Table 7. Estimates of export demand model for Indian marketing of these products more economical.
cucumber and gherkins Establishment of infrastructure for various sanitary
Items Coefficients Standard error and phytosanitary measures will also help in better
price realization of Indian cucumber and gherkin in
Constant -56.402*** 9.411 the international market. Gherkin is a short-duration
Volume of international 5.961*** 1.190 (75-90 days) labour-intensive and highly profitable
trade in cucumber and crop and therefore, its cultivation should be expanded
gherkin (Mt) to enhance its export in the world market. The study
Exchange rate (Rs/US$) 3.048** 1.177 has also revealed that exchange rate is a more
Indian export price 0.644 0.795 dominant determinant of export from India than price
(US$/Mt) of commodity.
R2 96.40 0.3846
F value 98.199*** Acknowledgement
Note: ** and *** indicate level of significance at 5 per The authors are highly thankful to the referee
cent and per cent levels, respectively. and Managing Editor of the journal for their critical
Source: Constructed from data of (1) FAO (2007) @ suggestions to improve the earlier draft of the
[Link] manuscript
(2) APEDA @ [Link]
Statistics/India and References
(3)[Link]
[Link] Acharya, K. (2006) A long look at a small vegetable,
Deccan Herald, Spectrum Supplement, 21 February,
([Link] )
in cucumber and gherkin products, demand for them
from India will increase by 5.96 per cent. The Anonymous (2005) India: Karnataka is cashing in on
coefficient for exchange rate was positive and gherkins, Deccan Herald, 12 December, (http://
[Link]/)
significant and indicated the importance of proper
management in the export of cucumber and gherkin Anonymous (2007) Fall in EU sugar output likely; Ministry
products from India. flags scope for export of gherkin, Hindu Business line,
4th June. ([Link] )
Indian export price had a positive effect on the
Balassa, B. (1965) Trade liberalisation and revealed
demand for export of cucumber and gherkin products comparative advantage, Manchester School of
from India, It is against the economic logic but is Economics and Social Studies, 33 (2):99-124.
non-significant and hence it can be concluded that
Chand, R. (2002) Indian agriculture and WTO: Looking
export price has not played any significant role in beyond Doha, Agricultural Economics Research
influencing the export of cucumber gherkin from Review (Conference Issue):17-42.
India.
Chand, R. and Philip L. Mathew (2001) Subsidies and
support in agriculture: Is WTO providing level
Conclusions playing field? Economic and Political Weekly,
The study has revealed that India is highly 36(32):3014-3016.
competitive in the export of cucumber and gherkin Dev, S. Mahendra and Chandrasekhara Rao, N. (2005)
and its products, which have registered an impressive Food processing and contract farming in Andhra
growth during the recent years. However, price Pradesh: A small farmer perspective, Economic and
realization of Indian products has declined during Political Weekly, 25 June: 2705- 2713
the period. This trend needs to be checked by FAO (2007) Food and Agriculture Organization
improving the quality of these products through (FAOSTAT@ [Link]).
dissemination of improved techniques of production Kumar, Anjani (2004) Export performance of Indian
and processing and also by providing adequate fisheries: Strengths and challenges ahead, Economic
government support for making production and and Political Weekly, 18 September: 4264-4270.
 138 Agricultural Economics Research Review Vol. 21 January-June 2008

Laursen, K. (1998) Revealed Comparative Advantage and the rise, Financial Daily from the Hindu group of
the Alternatives as Measures of International publications, 23 July.
Specialisation, DRUID Working Paper No. 98-30,
Shende, N. V. and Bhole, B. D (1999) Export potential for
Copenhagen, IVS, Copenhagen Business School.
India’s food grains, Economic Affairs, 44 (1): 59-64.
NAAS (2006) WTO and Indian Agriculture: Implication
USDA, ERS (1998) Agriculture in Uruguay Round:
for Policy and R&D, Policy Paper 38, National
Analysis of Govt. Support, Staff Report AGES880802,
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi (http:/
Washington, D. C.
/[Link]).
Vyas, V. S. (1994) Agriculture price policy: Need for
OECD (2000) Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries
reformulation In: Economic Liberalization and Indian
— Monitoring and Evaluation, Paris.
Agriculture, Ed: G. S. Bhalla, Institute for Studies in
Raja, Simhan T.E. (2003) Global demand for gherkins on Industrial Development, New Delhi.

View publication stats