Relief to Gardeners: No import of cheap apples, minimum import price Rs 50/kg
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notification in this regard on Monday. The notification states that the import of apples priced below Rs 50 a kg has been banned. This price is inclusive of cost, insurance and freight (CIF). However, imports from Bhutan are exempted from this. This exemption will not make much difference as imports from Bhutan are expensive.
Team RuralVoice
Giving relief to domestic apple growers, the central government has banned import of cheap apples. Apple costing less than Rs 50 per kg will not be allowed to be imported. This decision will provide a big relief to apple growers of Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Uttarakhand. Domestic producers were suffering losses due to import of cheap apples and they have been demanding this for a long time.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notification in this regard on Monday. The notification states that the import of apples priced below Rs 50 a kg has been banned. This price is inclusive of cost, insurance and freight (CIF). However, imports from Bhutan are exempted from this. This exemption will not make much difference as imports from Bhutan are expensive.
Presently there is 50 per cent duty on import of apples and apple growers' organisations were demanding that it be increased to 100 per cent. Most of the cheap apples were being imported from Iran and Turkey. The average import price of Iranian apples was Rs 20-25 per kg. Despite imposing 50 per cent import duty on it, it was fetching Rs 30-33 per kg in the country.
Apart from this, illegal imports through SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Countries) will also be stopped. In the name of Afghanistan, large quantities of Iranian apples used to reach India without import duty via Pakistan. Due to this, the domestic gardeners were suffering a lot and they were not getting the right price for their produce.
Apples are imported to India from countries like America, Iran, Brazil, UAE, Afghanistan, France, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Turkey, New Zealand, South Africa and Poland. According to statistics, in 11 months (Apr-Feb) of the financial year 2022-23, apples worth $ 296 million have been imported. The total import of apples in 2021-22 was to the tune of $ 385 million.
In 2022-23, there is tremendous increase of 84.8 per cent in import from South Africa and its value has increased to $ 18.53 million. Similarly, imports from Poland also showed a sharp increase of 83.36 per cent during this period and stood at $15.39 million.
