Beyond smartphones and fuel: India's FY26 export basket includes $948 million worth of human hair, snake venom, chess sets and exports you wouldn't expect

Beyond smartphones and diesel, India exported an array of unusual products including human hair, snake venom, dried jellyfish and Braille typewriters in FY2025-26, according to a report by the Financial Express based on official trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The data shows India exported merchandise worth $441.75 billion during the financial year across 11,565 product categories tracked under the eight-digit HS code system. While smartphones, fuel and pharmaceuticals remained the country's biggest export earners, the trade basket also featured a range of niche products, from chess sets and carrom boards to buffalo horns and even a single horse.

Human hair was among the biggest surprise exports

India exported $651.72 million worth of dressed or worked human hair in FY26. Another $286.99 million came from exports of unworked human hair classified as raw, washed or scoured. Add wigs, hairnets and oil-press filtering cloth partly made from human hair, and the category crossed $948 million.

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That is more than India earned from natural honey, toothbrushes and papad combined.

Much of the hair comes from temple offerings across the country before being processed and exported as hair extensions to markets such as the US, Europe and Africa. Exports of unworked human hair rose 45.03% during the year.

Snake venom and human blood also feature on the list

Some of India's pharmaceutical exports are just as unusual.

The country exported $5.72 million worth of snake venom in FY26, up 22.39% from the previous year. The venom is mainly used for research and antivenom production.

Exports of human blood stood at $4.82 million.

Another category — "other substances prepared for therapeutic or prophylactic use, of human origin" — jumped sharply from $24.31 million to $191.83 million.

Artificial teeth also made the list, bringing in $11.70 million, though exports fell 29.52% during the year.

Chess sets, carrom boards and frankincense

India also found buyers for several leisure and devotional products.

Playing cards earned $18.05 million, up 27.47%. Chess sets brought in $3.99 million, while carrom board exports stood at $3.09 million. Exports of water park amusements rose 78.02% to $2.75 million.

Among devotional products, agarbatti and related burning preparations earned $151.16 million. Attars in a fixed oil base brought in $7.90 million, sandalwood oil earned $2.16 million and olibanum, or frankincense, generated $1.12 million after rising 44.18%.

Saffron stigma exports fell 48.59% to $2.93 million, while exports of saffron stamen climbed 477.39% to $0.52 million.

Tiny exports, but real businesses

Some products generated barely $0.01 million, or around $10,000, in exports during the entire financial year.

These included pure-bred breeding horses, other horses, live carp, cobia, condensed milk and fertilised eggs of other birds.

Other niche exports included buffalo horns worth $2.13 million, cuttlefish bones at $2.85 million, dried or salted jellyfish at $3.90 million, snails worth $1.30 million, pigs' and boars' bristles worth $0.88 million and cattle guts used for natural food casings worth $1.04 million.

India also exported Braille typewriters worth $1.56 million, globes worth $4.97 million and swords, cutlasses, bayonets and lances worth $8.81 million.

Together, these unusual items contributed roughly $28 million, or just 0.0063% of India's total merchandise exports.

Smartphones still dominated exports

The unusual products may stand out, but India's export basket continued to be led by a few major items.

Smartphones remained the country's largest export at $29.36 billion, accounting for 6.65% of total merchandise exports. Automotive diesel followed at $19.52 billion, while cut and worked diamonds, medicines and motor gasoline completed the top five.

Together, these five categories made up 18.44% of India's total merchandise exports in FY26.

Fastest-growing export items

Among the fastest-growing export categories were dredgers, waste and scrap of other precious metals, refined copper cathodes, sulphur recovered from crude refining and full-range naphtha. Each posted triple-digit growth during the year, although together they accounted for less than 1% of India's total export basket.

Small green cardamom (Alleppey grade) narrowly missed the top five after recording growth of 150.94%.

Biggest declines

Some major export categories also saw sharp declines.

Exports of aircraft weighing over 15,000 kg fell 99.78%, while oils from high-temperature coal tar, aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures, digital processing units and other anticancer drugs also recorded steep drops.

The sharp decline in aircraft exports follows an unusually high base year, as a handful of large transactions can significantly affect the numbers.

More than just smartphones and fuel

The data shows that while India's export earnings are powered by a handful of products, thousands of smaller businesses continue to find buyers across the world.

In the same year that India exported $29.36 billion worth of smartphones and $19.52 billion worth of diesel, it also shipped chess sets, carrom boards, frankincense, jellyfish, Braille typewriters and products made from human hair.

The biggest exports explain what drives India's trade. The smallest ones offer a glimpse into just how diverse the country's export economy has become.