PXL/HO/Cir-069/2018-19                                                                                            Dt: 27.11.2018

Hyderabad

Dear Sir / Madam,

As members may be aware, after a very low/negative growth during last 3 years, Indian pharma exports started growing positively during the current financial year.  Exports to Africa Region’s contribution is significant in the positive growth of overall exports.  We give below some of the salient points about exports to Africa Region:

a.   Africa is about $ 6.0 billion generic market. Algeria, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Morocco are some of the major players.

b.   India’s pharma exports to Africa region during 2017-18 were US$ 3.35 bn with a growth rate of 4.14%.  During the current financial year (up to Sep 2018), exports to this region were US$ 1.69 bn and it is expected that there will be a positive growth this year also.

c.    While India is reasonably doing well in countries like Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, Uganda etc., India’s generic exports to countries like South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and some of the Francophone countries is not commensurate with  size of the generic market / imports of  that country.

d.   Our export contribution to countries like Ghana, Uganda etc., is reducing due to self-dependency policies of those countries.

Members will agree  that it is important not only to continue to sustain the growth in exports to those countries where India is doing well, but also important to regain our share in countries where India is losing as well as to penetrate in countries where India is not doing well.  To achieve this, we need to identify the issues and also suggest ways to address those issues so that necessary steps can be taken by Government / Pharmexcil. 

We request you to identify the country-wise issues (like non-tariff trade barriers, regulatory constraints, local distribution constraints, visas, logistics, alleged counterfeiting issues or any other pharma export related issues) and possible solutions for the same.  This helps in addressing the issues constructively.  You may also suggest any policy recommendations to Government for improving the exports / joint collaborations with local companies etc.

We wish to inform that a separate Panel for Africa Market has been formed by Committee of Administration of Council, headed by Mr. Bhavin Mehta (bhavinmehta@kilitch.com). You may like to interact and share your inputs with him, with a copy to us at info@pharmexcil.com

Thanking you and look forward to your inputs  

With regards

Udaya Bhaskar