Dumping of Foreign Apples to Worsen Crisis in Apple Economy
Srinagar, Dec 23:
The Apple Farmers’ Federation of India (AFFI) unequivocally condemns the ending of 50 per cent basic customs duty as per the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on import of apple. As per this FTA, a fixed quantity of imports of apples at zero or highly concessional tariff rates will be allowed. New Zealand’s trade ministry on Monday said it has become the “first” country to get duty concessions for its apples under any free trade agreement signed by India. A similar tariff rate quota (TRQ) system has also been agreed upon for honey, kiwi and albumins.
The present FTA with New Zealand rings alarm bells as the country has been the fourth largest exporter of apples to India. In the agreement, import duty concessions will be given to New Zealand on 32,500 metric tonnes (MT) in the first year of the pact. The quota will be increased to 45,000 MT in the sixth year at 25 per cent duty.
The AFFI demands that the Indian government protect the interests of apple farmers and immediately rescind the ending of 50 per cent import tariffs on New Zealand apples. We call upon farmers in apple-growing villages across the country to protest this blatant attack on their livelihoods.
This bilateral FTA, which India is boasting as a major-win has come at a significant cost for its horticultural sector, a sector that contributes 30 per cent of agricultural GDP. Apples are considered a high value crop in this subsector and bring remunerative incomes to farmers in the Himalayan states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and as well as Northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya.
However, over the past two decades, imports of apples from US, Turkey, Iran, New Zealand, Afghanistan, etc have been steadily rising while the export of our domestically produced fruit has remained near stagnant. In the last 25 years, imports have climbed from 0.2 lakh MT to 6 lakh MT, from 1.7 per cent of domestic production to 22.5 per cent. At the same time, our exports – at just 21,700 MT – is behind even the 2004-05 figures when India exported 23,100 MT of apples.
In recent years, the Modi government reduced the basic customs duty on apples from around 75% down to 50%. In 2023, as part of broader trade negotiations, India removed a 20 per cent retaliatory additional duty on US apple imports that had existed on top of the basic duty. Iranian apples are being imported into India under the guise of Afghanistan-origin to exploit the Afghanistan-India FTA and avoid import duties. AFFI in the past has repeatedly urged the Indian government to ban Iranian apples that are arriving under this relabelling practice. These reductions and illegal rerouting of apples have propelled the increase in our imports.
Considering that the two states producing almost 90 per cent of India’s annual apple production of 2.6 million MT, J&K and Himachal Pradesh, have been facing natural disasters and weather disturbances year after year, the Indian government should have increased the basic import duty to 100 per cent as has been the consistent demand of apple farmers. Instead, in an anti-farmer movie, the security of India’s apple growers has been compromised to favour interests of New Zealand.
