Tamil Nadu’s exports are performing like never before. In FY23, the state’s exports of goods totaled $40.7 billion, an increase of 15.6% year over year.
“This is significantly higher than the 6.9% growth rate recorded by India’s merchandise exports during the same period, indicating Tamil Nadu’s remarkable resilience to global shocks throughout the year,” says David Sinate, chief general manager of India Exim Bank.
With 9% of all Indian merchandise exports, Tamil Nadu is presently the third-largest exporting state. Electronics, which now surpasses autos, is the big winner. Tamil Nadu overtook Uttar Pradesh to take the top spot in electronics exports for the first time in 2022–2023. From $1.66 billion in 2020–21 to $5.37 billion in 2022–23, TN’s total increased (see table). As additional investments are planned for the future, this is a significant shift, according to Vishnu Venugopalan, MD & CEO of Guidance Tamil Nadu. According to him, significant contributions from Pegatron, Foxconn, and Tata Electronics are responsible for this sudden increase.
Telecom instruments recorded the highest y-o-y growth of 391.6% during FY23 driven by exports of mobile phones from Tamil Nadu. The share of telecom instruments in Tamil Nadu’s total merchandise exports grew to 9.2% in FY23 from just 2.2% in FY22, making it the second largest exported product from the state.
