India nuts for Californian dried
fruit By Arun Bhattacharjee
NEW DELHI - Afghanistan's struggle to emerge
from the economic chaos left by the Taliban and the
US-led "war on terror" has cost its supremacy in trading
dried fruit with India, allowing United States traders
to step in and fill the gap. But the Afghans are not the
only losers. Pakistan, another supplier of dried fruit
to the vast Indian market, has failed to cash in on the
opportunity created by Afghanistan's absence, as it
waits for trade barriers to fall and the peace process
with India to move forward.
Helped by a
liberalized economy that for the first time permits
imports of fruit and dried fruit, Indians are finding
that pistachios from California are bigger and taste
better, and almonds have better tans and are juicier.
India is the largest consumer of dried fruit in Asia;
during its severe winters northern Indians prefer ground
almonds in their milk and pistachios, always in short
supply during the Taliban rule, to denote household
status when served to guests. Soaked and sliced
pistachios and almonds are used to garnish nearly 30
billion tons of Indian sweets - made mostly from milk
and cottage cheese - annually. Green pistachio sweets
are in great demand and sell at US$15-20 per kilogram
during the hard winter months in northern India.
According to a non-official estimate by the Dry
Fruit Sellers' Association of India, nearly 400 million
Indians consume dried fruit, such as pistachios,
almonds, dried plums, chilguzas (pine fruit) and dried
apricots the size of crab apples directly, and another
400 million use them as additives for Indian sweets.
K K Kapoor, a third generation dried fruit
trader in Delhi's Central Azadpur wholesale market, says
they have imported 10 million tons of dried fruit this
year, of which most comes from California. During his
grandfather's time, he narrates, the distribution center
for dried fruits was Peshawar in Pakistan, which used to
supply dried fruits both from the northwest provinces of
Pakistan and Afghanistan to Delhi. India used to import
four varieties of raisins and six types of dried fruit
from Afghanistan and Pakistan, mostly supplied by land
route via Lahore to Delhi. Until the late 1970s and
early 1980s, Afghanistan used to make up for the
shortfall created by Indo-Pak trade barriers, but that
advantage vanished during the war with Russia and the
Talibanization of the country.
Currently, the
size of India's dried fruit market is $1 billion, and
growing at 20 percent annually, with a demand-supply gap
of over 30 million tons. With taxes on dried fruit
removed, imports have increased from 1 million to 10
million tons, and the market is ready for more,
according to Delhi's dried fruit traders. Most of the
traders are happy with shipments from California as they
arrive on time and the supply is assured during the
festival season that starts in October. They believe US
suppliers are likely to have a captive and growing dried
fruit market in India.
Another trader, R K Seth,
who migrated to India from Peshawar during the country's
partition, says the dried fruit trade in Delhi alone is
worth $50 million during Dipavali (Festival of Light),
when all the bureaucrats, politicians, friends,
relations and business partners receive dried fruit
packages as gifts.
A former Indian diplomat
posted in Kabul says Afghanistan could have established
and operated 100 high schools with its saffron petal
sales to India; a market it lost along with its dried
fruits. As the Afghan source dried up, India's $20
million saffron trade looked to Iran for supplies, but
found the cost prohibitive. Even 20 years ago, five
grams of Iranian saffron used to cost $40 and Spain
stepped in as the supply from politically disturbed
Kashmir became uncertain as well. Saffron is used to
color and flavor the famous Indian biriyani (meat
cooked with rice), sweets and ice creams.
Seth
says that California has added variety to suit Indian
tastes with new treatments for dried fruit. Now the
pistachios come as green, salted or sweetened and
almonds come in shells as well as in different treated
forms. Also, California's sun-kissed brand of seedless
raisins and black currants imported in bulk are sweeping
Indian markets.
Apart from dried fruit,
California faces almost no restrictions in exporting
fresh fruit to the Indian market because of its strict
pest control measures and health regulations. While
Californian grapes, apples, plums and apricots are
flooding the fruit stalls in Indian metros, Thailand,
New Zealand and Japan are not allowed to export fresh
fruit to India. India introduced from January 1 this
year Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) as a pre-requisite to
import fresh fruit from abroad within its Plant and
Fruits Quarantine Act, which automatically outlawed all
kinds of berries, Kiwi fruit from New Zealand, Japanese
melons, apples, galangals and rambutan from Thailand.
Australia recently received a reprieve and is allowed to
export grapes, peaches, mandarins, oranges and plums.
Bulk traders in fresh fruit at the Azadpur market claim
that Californian fresh fruit, especially apples,
seedless grapes and oranges, are more liked by consumers
than the Australian varieties.
The traders feel
that the cost of importing dried fruit and raisins from
the US is higher mostly because of shipping charges.
Although they sell at the price charged to US customers,
they feel this is higher for Indians and those imported
from Afghanistan. So far Australia, New Zealand and
Japan have not entered India's dried fruit market in
spite of the freight and cost advantages.
Although the new government policy against
importing fresh fruit from these countries may keep them
away for a short period, they are eventually likely to
compete with the US in both dried and fresh fruit, given
their cost advantage. Sources in India's Ministry of
Commerce explain that Australia, New Zealand and Japan
are taking steps to meet India's health and pest control
needs and they will enter the Indian market, perhaps by
the end of 2005, when Californian exporters might have
to consider new pricing of their bulk as well as
packaged products to retain their unforeseen advantage,
partially created by the political and economic
environment in Afghanistan.
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Apr 24, 2004
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