NEW DELHI: An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but a recent notifica ion by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) restricting apple imports to only a single port on the west coast may well put it out of reach of apple lovers in the country.
A recent DGFT notification has restricted apple imports only to Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai. As a result, consumers of imported apples from south Indian cities like Hyderabad, Vizag, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Chennai as also eastern parts of the country will now have to shell out almost double for their preferred variety of imported apples. Currently, imported apples are available in the range of around Rs 250-350 per kg in Vizag as against the domestic variety that is sold anywhere from Rs 80 to 120 per kg.
According to data on import of fresh apples available on the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority website, 1.75 lakh metric tonnes of fresh apples valued at Rs 1,176.03 crore were imported in 2013 14 and this shot up to 1.97 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 fiscal – with a value of Rs 1,388.72 crore. The lion’s share of apple imports come from the US, China, Chile and New Zealand as also from Italy, Iran, France, Belgium, Turkey among others.
Understandably, the move, which is being interpreted as a non-tariff barrier aimed at protecting domestic producers, has kicked up a storm. Tamil Chamber of Commerce president Chozha Naachiar Rajasekar said, “The price will go up by more than 100% as there will be a delay in clearances from a single port. Let us say it takes three to five days to get clearance from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage and other agencies to get it out of port. Now it will take thrice the time to get it out from Nhava Sheva as the port will be flooded. Plus, we will also have to pay extra for demurrage, container storage and generator charge.”
He said Chennai Port Trust alone handled around 8,000 to 10,000 refrigerated containers (reefers) per annum, making Chennai one of the largest apple import ports in India.
According to a logistics provider, now the cost – just in terms of bringing a refrigerated truck with 15 tonnes from Mumbai to Vizag – will go up by 15%. “And this price rise will not be restricted to Vizag alone. Imported apples will become costlier in entire south India, including metros such as Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Prices will also go up in eastern parts of country,” he explained.
Slamming the move, Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation vice-president G Sambasiva Rao said, “It is not correct to allow imports of apples only through one west coast port. They should create facilities and allow importers to use any port that is suitable. We object to the notification. If the government has planned this to contain illegal shipments, then it should put up more X-ray scanners.”
