Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh on Wednesday, 27 May 2026 highlighted a sharp rise in India's toffee exports, attributing a 166 per cent growth over 12 years to the business-friendly climate fostered under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and the Make in India initiative.

Context

Posting on X, Giriraj Singh stated that India's toffee exports have risen from ₹49.68 crore to ₹132 crore over the past 12 years — a growth he described as 'historic'. In Hindi, he wrote: 'मेक इन इंडिया की मिठास अब वैश्विक स्तर पर दुनिया का मुँह मीठा कर रही है' ['The sweetness of Make in India is now sweetening the world at a global level']. The minister framed the figures as proof of India's strengthened economic policies and rising global credibility.

The post was accompanied by an image and tagged with the hashtags #MakeInIndia, #VocalForLocal, #EconomicGrowth, #ExportSurge, and #TransformingIndia — a standard set used by BJP ministers to amplify the government's economic messaging on social media.

Policy Backdrop

The Make in India programme was launched in September 2014 by Prime Minister Modi with the stated aim of raising manufacturing's share of GDP and expanding merchandise exports. The companion Vocal for Local campaign, intensified from 2020 onwards, encouraged consumers and businesses to prefer domestically produced goods and reduce import dependence.

India's processed food and confectionery sector has been among the beneficiaries of production-linked incentive schemes and trade facilitation measures rolled out in successive Union Budgets since 2014. The government has consistently sought to diversify the country's export basket beyond traditional strongholds such as textiles and engineering goods into consumer and food products.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of this export surge, if the figures are borne out by official trade data, are confectionery manufacturers — many of them micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) concentrated in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. A near-tripling of export value over a decade would represent a significant market-development achievement for a sector that has historically competed on price rather than brand recognition internationally.

For Giriraj Singh, whose ministerial portfolio covers textiles but who frequently amplifies broader economic data on social media, the toffee export figures serve as a data point in the government's wider narrative of export-led growth and the global acceptance of Indian consumer brands.

What's Next

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is expected to release updated annual export statistics for 2025-26, which will allow independent verification of the figures cited by the minister. Analysts will also watch for any new bilateral trade agreements with major confectionery import markets that could further expand the addressable market for Indian toffee and sugar-confectionery producers.

If the growth trajectory holds, the confectionery segment could become a template for how niche processed-food categories can leverage government export-promotion infrastructure to build durable international market share — a model the Modi government has sought to replicate across multiple food-processing sub-sectors.