New Zealand's apple industry is sharing the secrets of its productive pipfruit success with growers in India, but assures the efforts will not hurt competition exporting there.
Sector leaders and diplomats have returned from a week in India, where they met with state officials and apple growers in key growing region of Himachal Pradesh, known as the apple bowl of India in the western Himalayas.
Here, New Zealand was setting up a centre of excellence, as part of a co-operation commitment under the new free trade agreement (FTA) with India coming into effect on Tuesday next week.
In addition to bolstering online data and resources, the centre will feature an apple orchard with different apple varieties, a research centre and foster collaboration with New Zealand experts to expand India's domestic production.
The project built on earlier efforts of sending scientists from Plant and Food Research (now under the Bioeconomy Science Institute) to the region again to help growers improve production.
New centres will be established in India for kiwifruit development too.
Danielle Adsett, chief executive of industry group New Zealand Apples and Pears, was accompanied by the country's special agricultural trade envoy Nathan Guy on the trip in late September, early October.
New Zealand apple exports will face smaller import tariffs and new quota concessions under the NZ-India FTA coming into effect soon. www.alphapix.co.nz
Adsett said the project was a result of new FTA provisions.
"India should absolutely benefit. For New Zealand, we have been provided with tariff concessions and a quota.
"So that's what we managed to get on the table, and the co-operation plan is what we offered up to get that result."
Adsett said India deeply trusted New Zealand and its expertise, and there was good opportunity to help Indian farmers increase productivity on their orchards.
She said Indian apples sat in a different market segment to more premium New Zealand apples, which would also be counter-seasonal.
"India relies on imported apples, and they've got 1.4 billion people to feed," she said. "And India fundamentally cannot produce enough apples for the demand that they have.
"There are hundreds of thousands of growers in India farming on very, very difficult terrain with very difficult access and fundamentally growing a different variety mix to what we can offer the Indian consumer.
"So I do not see a world in which New Zealand apples would compete directly with Indian apples."
But she said it would not be without its challenges, including access to nursery stock and cold chain issues.
"Very, very old orchards. Very, very big trees that are not producing much at all. So there's a real opportunity to help that shift, but the opportunity obviously will have a lot of challenges alongside."
A bite into the apple
India was New Zealand's fourth largest export market for apples and pears in the year to June, worth around $100 million, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/trade/free-trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements-concluded-but-not-in-force/new-zealand-india-free-trade-agreement/key-facts-on-new-zealand-india-trade
A recent Ministry for Primary Industries report showed apple exports reached more than 38,564 tonnes in the year to December, according to its Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries report.
But Adsett said they would be close to 50,000 tonnes this year, mostly Royal Gala, which faced the current 50 percent import tariff on top of the sales price.
"So a very, very difficult market to make any margin on. In fact, most of our product struggles to be competitive in that market, due to the nature of the other markets that they import from."
The FTA will see new quotas for apples from year one during India's off-season, in the window of April to the end of August.
The first 32,500 tonnes will be subject to 25 percent tariffs, and the current 50 percent tariff would apply for volumes in excess of that.
Adsett said apple exporters would likely exceed that volume next season.
India's import quota concessions would reduce for Aotearoa over the next six years, expanding to 45,000 tonnes at the remaining 25 percent tariff.
Tariffs on pears into India will drop to 16.5 percent over the next decade, with no quota limit.
For kiwifruit, New Zealand exporters would face duty-free access for 6,250 tonnes each year, widening to up to 15,000 tonnes by year six. Out-of-tariff quotas will halve to 16.5 percent.
The FTA will come into effect on 20 October, Tuesday next week.
Meanwhile, the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement that came into effect in December 2022 excluded provisions for apples.
-RNZ