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Apple Farmers in India: Indian apple farmers are suffering badly. In Himachal Pradesh, private companies including the Adani Group are buying high quality apples at Rs 80 per kg. Adani Agro Fresh Limited, the largest apple buying company, had fixed the purchase price of apples at Rs 95 per kg last year, but this time apples are being bought at a rate of Rs 15 less.
Along with this, common customers are also facing a lot of trouble. These days the average rate of good quality apples in the markets is Rs 120 to Rs 140 per kg. That is, companies are buying high quality apples from farmers at the rate of Rs 80 per kg and selling them to customers at the rate of Rs 140 per kg. Along with this, Indian farmers are also suffering losses due to apples coming from abroad.
Therefore, Indian apple farmers have told Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that the minimum import price (MIP) of apples should be Rs 90 per kg as the cost of domestic farmers comes around this. The current MIP of apples has been fixed by the government at Rs 50 per kg, due to which a large quantity of apples is being imported into the country from Iran and Turkey at cheap prices.
Along with this, Chinese apples are coming to India via the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Apples are not produced in the UAE. Still, importing from there directly means that Chinese apples are coming to India. Similarly, under the guise of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), a large quantity of Iranian apples are coming to India via Afghanistan.
Due to low MIP and import duty, domestic apple producers are facing an existential crisis. In such a situation, Himachal's share in the domestic market has decreased which is a matter of concern. These things have been said by the Progressive Growers Association in a letter written to Shivraj Singh. This letter has been sent by the association on 5 September 2024.
In the letter written by the association, it has been said that the central government had fixed MIP of Rs 50 per kg for foreign apples in 2023. After this decision, a large quantity of cheap apples is being imported into India from countries like Iran, UAE, Afghanistan and Turkey. These apples are being sold at a much lower price than Indian apples, due to which the orchardists are also facing difficulty in recovering their costs.
The association has said that apple production in India is also witnessing a decline. In 2010-11, 2,891 thousand metric tonnes of apples were produced in the country, which decreased to 2,437 thousand metric tonnes in 2021-22. The share of Himachal Pradesh also decreased from 31 percent to 26.42 percent. Meanwhile, countries like China and Iran are selling their cheap apples in the Indian market, which has increased the problems of Indian apple producers.
According to the association, apples imported from Iran, UAE, Afghanistan and Turkey now account for about 65 per cent of India's total apple imports. In 2023-24, apples worth Rs 1,901 crore reached India from these countries, which is about 11 per cent of the country's total demand. Due to this, Indian farmers are facing a big challenge. Earlier China was the largest exporter of apples to India, but now cheap apples from Iran, UAE and Afghanistan dominate the Indian market.
Association president Lokinder Bisht said that due to low import duty, apples from countries like Iran are available in the market at Rs 60 to Rs 70 per kg. He said that local apple producers are not able to compete with cheap apples coming from Iran as the cost of production, harvesting, packing and transportation is Rs 55 to Rs 60 per kg.
Bisht said that if apples are being imported, then as per the rules, it is not possible to sell them at such a low price. After the implementation of MIP, apples cannot reach India at a price less than Rs 50 per kg and after adding 50 percent import duty on it, its price becomes Rs 75 per kg. After this, after adding the profit of traders, it cannot be sold for less than Rs 100 per kg.
Despite this, Iranian apples are being sold at a low price, which is a sign of some scam. He said that to avoid import duty, either the prices of fruits coming from these countries are being shown low or they are being imported under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), where import duty is not applicable.
Bisht said that apple growers have written a letter to the central government and appealed that if no corrective steps are taken immediately, the entire apple economy will be ruined due to rising costs and cheap imports from Iran. He expressed hope that the central government will take appropriate steps by taking this issue seriously.