There seems no end to the woes of exporters to Europe. Months of slowdown, then when the situation started to look up, the rupee appreciated eating into the profits of the exporters. While the exporters were still in the midst of re-evaluating their strategies, exports to key European markets have now been affected by flight disruptions over the past few days as planes remain grounded following a volcanic eruption in Iceland.

In the last couple of days I have met a few number of exporters who have been affected for these reasons. However, I felt that the exporters who solely depended on European markets were the most affected, while exporters who had diverse countries in their trade basket were not affected much in their profit bookings.

I think the situation calls for looking at all geographical directions, rather than just looking at the West, from which we are at present not profiting much. As such, turning our attention towards the Eastern nations can be a good idea. It's a fact agreed by experts that the region today provides immense opportunity for Indian manufacturers and service providers to expand their global footprint.

For instance, Indian seafood exports to Europe and US have declined in volume and value over last year and interestingly, for the first time, seafood exports from India to the East have surpassed those to the West. A fair indication of the potential the region holds for Indian exporters.

Even Union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran had acknowledged that India's 'Look East Policy' was paying good dividends, especially in the textile sector.

The slow revival in the US and Europe is in stark contrast to the rapid recovery witnessed in the eastern economies which unfolds new vistas for India's manufacturers and exporters as attractive propositions for exports.

I believe the Indian government's 'Look East' policy has certainly helped as far as economic gains are concerned. The Asian region is now our largest trade partner and our economic exchanges with Southeast Asia as well as the more mature economies of Northeast Asia like China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong have been facilitated by this policy. I have no doubt that had these nations not figured prominently on our trade profile, we would have been much more severely affected by the global economic downturn.

I think it's time for us to look at our eastern partners with more vigour and take advantage of the opportunities that lie before us.

Bikky Khosla
CEO
Tradeindia.com