At present, India’s exports of these goods to Russia stood at $1.7 billion, as against Russia’s $37.4 billion in imports.
“This stark disparity demonstrates the substantial complementary export space India can target,” the official said, adding increasing exports will also help India bridge its trade deficit with Russia, which stood at $59 billion. These high-potential products have been selected by the commerce ministry by analysing complementary basket of products – mapping India’s supply visa-a-vis Russia’s demand across key sectors, the official added.
The most promising areas mirror India’s rising global strengths are engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and agriculture, all of which correspond to substantial unmet demand in the Russian market.
India’s share in Russia’s import basket remains modest around 2.3%. New Delhi’s imports from Moscow surged from $5.94 billion in 2020 to $64.24 billion in 2024 which is a more than tenfold jump driven almost entirely by mineral fuels or crude oil increasing from $2 billion in 2020 to $57 billion in 2024. Oil accounts for nearly 21% of total India’s imports of oil, cementing Russia’s role as a key trading partner. Beyond hydrocarbons, fertilisers and vegetable oils are other imported products.
On the exports front, agriculture and allied products reveal particularly strong promise. India currently exports $452 million of products (opportunity products) to Russia against their global import demand of $ 3.9 billion.
Meanwhile, engineering goods present one of the widest gaps with India exporting $90 million, while Russia imports $2.7 billion in this segment, with more room as Russia diversifies away from China.Chemicals and plastics show a similar pattern, with India contributing $135 million to a demand of $2.06 billion.
Further pharmaceuticals remain a strategic corridor, too, as India supplies $546 million, but Russia’s pharma import bill touches $9.7 billion, making generics and APIs (active pharma ingredients) significant growth levers.
Beyond these high-value sectors, India’s labour-intensive industries – textiles, apparel, leather goods, handicrafts, processed foods and light engineering – hold substantial promise given Russia’s large consumer base and India’s cost competitiveness, the official said.