INDIA-ARGENTINA
ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP
By R. Viswanathan*
I
ndia’s trade with Argentina was 2938 million US dollars in
2017-18, according to the Indian Ministry of Commerce.
India had exported 709 million dollars and imported 2229
million.
India’s main exports were chemicals, vehicles, textiles
and engineering items. There is scope for India to increase
its exports to two billion dollars by 2025 if the Indian
companies explore the export opportunities more seriously
and systematically.
India’s major import from Argentina is edible oil which
was 2064 million dollars in 2018. The other imports include
chemicals, leather, cereals and pulses.
Argentina is the largest exporter of soy oil in the world
while India is the largest global importer. India accounts for 40
percent of Argentine soy oil exports. Besides soy oil, India has
also been importing small quantities of Argentine sunfl ower
oil. India has been increasing its global edible oil imports
steadily over the years and this trend is likely to continue in
the future. Argentina has the capacity to increase its exports. In
recent years, India has started sourcing pulses from Argentina,
besides fresh fruits.
While India is self- suffi cient in cereals, it has perpetual and
growing shortage of edible oil and pulses due to inadequate
domestic production and increasing demand. India faces
challenging agricultural issues such as relentless loss of
agricultural land to urbanisation, water shortage and low yield.
On the other hand, Argentina has the capacity to increase its
land under cultivation and has abundant water reserves, world
class technologies and best practices. Argentina is one of the
global leaders in effi cient and innovative large scale farming.
Indian companies have invested in Argentina in sectors
such as IT, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and manufactures
of other products such as lenses and cosmetics. Advanta,
the group company of UPL, the Indian agrochemical fi rm
has a large Research and Development centre in Argentina
for development of new varieties of seeds of corn, soy and
sunfl ower. The Indian IT/BPO/KPO fi rms employ Argentine
talents to do research and analysis for servicing Wall Street
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clients among others. Argentina has one of the largest and
most talented and skilled pool of manpower in Latin America.
Argentine fi rms had helped India with their technology and
expertise to set up CNG bus fl eet and infrastructure in Delhi
and. Globant, an Argentine IT fi rm has a global delivery centre
in India and Techint, a steel conglomerate, has an off shore
engineering service centre in Mumbai.
Gustavo Santaolalla, the famous Argentine music director
had composed music for Aamir Khan’s fi lm “ Dhobi Ghat”.
A Trivandrum-based IT fi rm Toonz Animation had made the
software for a big budget Argentine cartoon fi lm in Spanish
“Gaturro”. An Argentine fi lm director/producer Pablo Cesar has
just released an Indo-Argentine joint venture fi lm “ Thinking
of Him” based on the real story of Tagore’s visit to Buenos
Aires and his encounter with Victoria Ocampo, an Argentine
literary celebrity.
Although Argentina is currently going through some
economic diffi culties, the country has the potential to re-
emerge as a prosperous nation. It was, in fact, among the
top ten richest countries of the world in the beginning of the
twentieth century. The country is a global agricultural pow-
erhouse, has a diversifi ed industrial base and a large science
and technology base.
The Argentines attach importance to India which is the sixth
largest destination of their exports. Argentina exports more to
India than to their traditional trade partners such as Germany,
UK, Japan, France, Spain or Italy. They see the promise of
India as a large and growing market for their exports in the
long term. They are serious practitioners of yoga, meditation
and spiritualism. There are several thousands of followers of
Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and other such Indian gurus.
As the third largest economy in Latin America, Argentina
off ers bright scope for India’s exports and investment. Prime
Minister Modi’s visit to Argentina in November for the G-20
Summit off ers an opportunity for India to build a strong base
for building a long term economic partnership.
* The author is former Indian Ambassador to Argentina