Introduction
Starting an import business is a goal of more than thousands of merchants and
businessman. Like an export business, import business is also very profitable
business, if an importer proceeds with the right strategies. However, the long
term success and profitability of an import business greatly depends on the
importer’s knowledge and understanding about the international market and
foreign market analysis.
Today, importing goods from abroad has becomes a big business. Everything from beverages to
cars--and a staggering list of other products that one might have never imagined
has now become the part of the global import. Millions of products are bought,
sold, represented and distributed somewhere in the world on a daily basis.
Reasons for Import There are number of supporting reasons why import business and services is
growing at such a fast rate:-
Availability: An individual or business man or an importer
needs to import because there are certain things that he can’t grow or
manufacture in his home country. For example Bananas in Alaska, Mahogany Lumber
in Maine and Ball Park franks in France.
Cachet: A lot of things, like caviar and champagne, pack more
cachet, more of an "image," if they're imported rather than home-grown. Think
Scandinavian furniture, German beer, French perfume, Egyptian cotton. It all
seems classier when it comes from distant place.
Price: Price factor is also an important reason for import of
products. Some products are cheaper when imported from foreign country. For
example Korean toys, Taiwanese electronics and Mexican clothing, to rattle off a
few, can often be manufactured or assembled in foreign factories for far less
money than if they were made on the domestic country.
Import in India
The rising middle income groups of consumers in India and their increasing
levels on expenditure on various products has resulted a faster rising demand of
the Indian import business. Major imports of India include cereals, edible oils,
machineries, fertilizers and petroleum products. Total import from India
estimated to be around US$187.9 billion. India is also a bulk importer of edible
oil, sugar, pulp and paper, newsprint, crude rubber and Iron and steel.
Import Regulatory Body
In India, all the activities related to import are handled by the Directorate
General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), a government organisation that also controls
the export business in India. DGFT and all its regional offices work under the
Ministry Commerce and Industries, Department of Commerce, Government of India.
All the procedure and policies in matter related to the import is announced by
the DGFT through its notification, appendices and forms.
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