Himachal: Why clamour for raising import duty on apples

For the last few years, apple growers have been clamouring for a hike in tariff and minimum import price on imported apple. The demand has hit the crescendo following the US demanding lowering of tariff on US imports, which includes Washington apple. Besides, the growers are demanding a complete ban on importing apple from Turkey following its open support to Pakistan in the latest skirmish between the two neighbours. Turkey, incidentally, has emerged as the largest exporter of apple to India over the last two years.

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Given the persistent demand for hike in import duty and minimum import price, there’s a feeling in some quarters that apple growers are shying away from global competition. Devinder Sharma, a noted agriculture expert, rejects the perception outright. “Do we even realise how much subsidy the US offers to its apple growers and farmers? It’s massive compared to what our farmers get in the name of subsidy. Such a massive gap in the government support makes competition totally lop-sided,” he said. He further said that apple growers could be expected to compete with imported apple without substantial import duty only if there’s a level playing field in terms of subsidies. “Until then, the apple growers are totally justified in demanding a significant tariff on apple coming from abroad,” asserted Sharma.

Meanwhile, apple growers say that the government support in term of subsidies has come down to a trickle over the years. “The subsidies on fertilizers have reduced significantly, there is no subsidy on trellis system or on expensive planting material. Also, we’ve been demanding that GST on farm equipment, packaging material and fungicides be kept in the lowest slab, but this demand too has fallen on deaf ears. In short, the government offers little support to us, but wants us to compete with foreign farmers who are generously funded by their governments,” said Lokinder Bisht, president of the Progressive Growers Association.

The other big handicap that limits their ability to face global competition without any protection is the nature of terrain where they grow apple. In the hilly terrain, with small and scattered land holdings, apple cultivation is an entirely labour-intensive exercise as mechanisation is not possible. It substantially pushes up cost of production.

“We have done a study to find out the per kg cost an apple grower has to bear till the time his produce reaches mandi for sale. It came out to be around Rs 52 to Rs 62. The imported apple from countries like Iran and Turkey lands here just about at the same or slightly higher prices. So, how do we compete with foreign apple having more or less the same price?” said Bisht. Besides, apple cultivation is mostly rain dependent in the state, which leads to significant variance in both quality and quantity from season to season.

Harish Chauhan, convener of the Sanyukt Kisan Manch, points out how far ahead advanced countries were in terms of per hectare productivity. “In New Zealand, the per hectare production is 60-70 ton. Here, our productivity per hectare is merely 7-10 ton, mainly because of our tough terrain where mechanisation is not possible,” said Chauhan.

He further pointed out that the post-harvest infrastructure and processing facilities available to the local apple growers were negligible as compared to the farmers abroad. “Our constraints should also be factored in when we are told to face the global competition,” he said, adding that the government should at least consider raising minimum import price and employing non-tariff barriers to safeguard our interests if it was not possible to raise import duty.