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Russia’s demand profile opens new avenues for Indian exports: Officials
The complementarity between India’s global export strengths and Russia’s demand profile offers huge potential
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India-Russia bilateral trade is moving from a narrow, energy-heavy engagement to a more layered and resilient economic relationship, with Russia’s demand profile offering significant headroom for Indian engineering goods, pharmaceuticals and agricultural products, officials said on Wednesday.
The complementarity between India’s global export strengths and Russia’s demand profile offers huge potential as at present India’s share in Russia’s imports remains modest around 2.3%, officials said on anonymity. New Delhi and Moscow have strong and time-tested bilateral relationships, which can be leveraged to boost two-way trade, they added.
India’s exports to Russia have expanded steadily since the Covid-19 pandemic –– from $2.56 billion in 2020 to $4.92 billion in 2024. Although Russia accounts for 1.1% of India’s global exports, the trajectory signals strong prospects for growth, officials said.
Bilateral trade, however, saw a huge jump because of India importing cheaper Russian energy in recent years. “Total bilateral trade crossed $69.2 billion in 2024 from about $8.5 billion in 2020,” one of the officials said. Russian crude accounted for nearly 21% of India’s total imports of oil. Beyond hydrocarbons, fertilisers and vegetable oils are other key imports.
“The post-Covid phase marks a turning point in bilateral trade. During this period, India consistently grew its presence across a broad spectrum of product categories, including vehicles, drugs and pharma, and engineering goods, among others,” the official cited above said.
India’s next phase of export expansion to Russia hinges on a sharper alignment between India’s globally competitive sectors and Russia’s large, underserved import needs, the official said. “India enjoys more than 60% of trade complementarity with Russia,” he added.
Indian agriculture and allied products have strong promise in the country, the official said. “India currently exports $452 million of products to Russia against their global import demand of $3.9 billion,” the official said.
Engineering goods present one of the widest gaps with New Delhi exporting $90 million, while Moscow imports $2.7 billion in this segment along with growing room as Russia diversifies from China, he added.
The official identified similar prospects for Indian chemicals and plastics products, with India currently contributing only $135 million, whereas demand in Russia is quite high at over $4 billion. “Pharmaceuticals remain a strategic corridor too,” he said, adding that India’s exports stands at $546 million, against a market of $9.762 billion, which can make way for Indian generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Similarly, India’s labour-intensive industries such as textiles, apparel, leather goods, handicrafts, processed foods and light engineering also hold substantial promise given Russian demand and India’s cost competitiveness. “Electronics and textiles currently have a market share below 1%, yet demand is sizable, offering space for scale if supported by stronger distribution networks,” he said.
“With India’s imports from Russia largely limited to oil and fertilisers, the policy focus clearly lies in growing Indian exports across this diversified set of opportunities, positioning India as a more significant and reliable supplier to the Russian market in the years ahead,” the official concluded.
