Hill States Horticulture Forum warns FTAs threaten apple growers, Seeks urgent review of trade agreements
Srinagar, Dec 31, KNT: The Hill States Horticulture Forum has flagged serious concerns over the impact of ongoing and proposed Free Trade Agreements on India’s apple sector, warning that tariff concessions on apple imports could severely destabilise the horticulture-based economy of hill states.
A high-level delegation of the forum, led by Harish Chouhan and comprising Maajid A. Wafai, Bashir Ahmad Naik, Izhan Javeed, Irshad A. Bhat, and Sunil Aggarwal, met Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at his residence to convey the apprehensions of apple growers from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
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The delegation underlined that horticulture, particularly apple cultivation, forms the backbone of hill-state economies, sustaining lakhs of farming families and supporting an extensive chain of allied livelihoods such as labour, transport, cold storage, packaging, and local trade.
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Farmer representatives expressed concern over policy signals emerging from recent and ongoing trade negotiations, including talks with New Zealand, the European Union, the United States and Chile. They cautioned that reduced import duties on apples, even under tariff-rate quota mechanisms, could place domestic growers at a serious disadvantage.
The Forum said the existing 50 percent customs duty on apple imports serves as a crucial safeguard for Indian producers, who already face higher input costs and climatic uncertainties. Imported apples, they noted, often benefit from state subsidies, advanced mechanisation and export incentives in their countries of origin.
Members of the delegation warned that proposals to allow apple imports from March would severely impact the cold-storage infrastructure developed across hill states over decades with substantial public investment. They said permitting imports at the very start of the domestic marketing season would depress prices and disrupt the entire post-harvest ecosystem.
The Forum cautioned that such a move would have cascading effects across the horticulture economy, impacting cold-store operators, transporters, packers, commission agents, farm labourers and thousands of orchard-dependent families across the Himalayan region. They stressed that apple cultivation is not merely an agricultural activity but a vital economic pillar contributing significantly to regional income and rural employment.
The delegation placed several demands before the Union Agriculture Ministry, including an immediate review of any reduction in apple import duties under FTAs, a comprehensive socio-economic impact assessment of existing and proposed trade agreements, strengthened safeguard mechanisms to prevent market flooding, and meaningful engagement with farmer groups during trade negotiations. It also urged revision of the reference price of imported apples from the existing ₹50 to ₹90 to prevent under-invoicing and protect domestic markets.
The delegation said it left the meeting with a sense of reassurance, noting that the Union Agriculture Minister patiently heard their concerns and assured them that the interests of Indian farmers would not be compromised. The assurance, they said, has strengthened confidence that the issues raised will receive serious consideration at the highest levels. [KNT]
