Reduction in apple import duty under FTA ‘anti-farmer’:AFFI

The Apple Farmers’ Federation of India (AFFI) has condemned the reduction in import duty on apples from 50 per cent to 25 percentb under the India–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Under the FTA, a fixed quantity of apple imports will be allowed at highly concessional tariff rates. New Zealand’s trade ministry on Monday stated that it has become the “first” country to receive 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.

In a statement, AFFI demanded that the Union government protect the interests of apple farmers and immediately rescind the removal of the 50 per cent import tariff on New Zealand apples. “We call upon farmers in apple-growing villages across the country to protest this blatant attack on their livelihoods,” the statement read.

“This bilateral FTA, which India is projecting as a major win, has come at a significant cost to the horticulture sector, which contributes nearly 30 per cent to the agricultural GDP. Apples are considered a high-value crop in this subsector and provide remunerative incomes to farmers in the Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya,” the statement added.

However, over the past two decades, imports of apples from the US, Turkey, Iran, New Zealand and Afghanistan have been steadily increasing, while exports of domestically produced apples have remained nearly stagnant. Over the last 25 years, imports have risen from 0.2 lakh metric tonnes (MT) to 6 lakh MT, increasing from 1.7 per cent to 22.5 per cent of domestic production. In contrast, exports currently stand at just 21,700 MT, lower than the 2004–05 figure of 23,100 MT, AFFI claimed.

“Considering that Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh—together producing nearly 90 per cent of India’s annual apple output of 2.6 million MT—have been repeatedly affected by natural disasters and weather disturbances, the government should have increased the basic import duty to 100 per cent, as consistently demanded by apple farmers. Instead, in an anti-farmer move, the security of India’s apple growers has been compromised to favour the interests of New Zealand,” the statement said.