Apple Imports From US Surge 40 Times In 3 Months After India Revoked Retaliatory Duty

New Delhi, Dec 13 (KNN) Since India removed the “retaliatory import duty” on US apples in September, American apples imports have increased 40 times in last three months.

In 2017-18, the import of US apples was a record of over 7 million boxes, which dropped to 50,000 boxes in the 2022–23 (September–August) season.

Speaking at a promotional event in New Delhi on Tuesday, Sumit Saran, country representative of Washington Apple Commission, said, “We are hopeful to regain our market share. Apart from metros, we see a lot of sales in tier I and tier II cities. We do not promote when Indian production is in market. We wait till domestic production exhausts by January so our product can be from February.”

Saran said Washington apples had a kind of gone out of Indian market due to “retaliatory tariff” of additional 20 per cent over and above basic import duty of 50 per cent imposed in 2019 in retaliation to section 232 of US government’s higher import tax on Indian steel and aluminium.

Though India announced to withdraw additional duty on US apples in June, the notification came only on September 6.

Claiming that the non-presence of Washington apples created a void both for traders and consumers, Saran said that 70 per cent duty was huge for the trade to compete with other origins that were paying 50 per cent duty.

Between September 1 and November 30, 440,000 boxes (of 20 kg each) have been imported, as against only about 10,000 boxes in the year-ago period, he said. In entire 2022-23 (September-August), India had imported 50,000 boxes of apple from the US whereas prior to the additional duty levied, the annual import by India was about 5 million boxes, he added.

(KNN Bureau)