Srinagar, Dec 31: Terming free trade agreements (FTAs) with foreign countries a “body blow” to India’s apple economy, cold store owners from Jammu and Kashmir have stated that any reduction in import duties on apples would devastate domestic growers and dismantle the fragile horticulture ecosystem of hill states.
Representatives of the Jammu & Kashmir Fruits & Vegetables Processing and Integrated Cold Chain Association (JKPICCA), an amalgam of cold store owners from the Union Territory, raised these concerns during a meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Delhi. JKPICCA was part of the Hill States Horticulture Forum (HSHF), a collective platform representing apple growers and allied stakeholders from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
JKPICCA president Bashir Ahmad Naik said the delegation clearly communicated that tariff concessions under FTAs would severely undermine the domestic apple industry. “We have raised our apprehensions in unambiguous terms. Any dilution of the existing customs duty structure will be disastrous for growers as well as for the cold-chain infrastructure painstakingly developed over decades in Jammu and Kashmir and other hill states,” he said.
A high-level delegation of the Hill States Horticulture Forum, led by Harish Chouhan and comprising representatives including Maajid A. Wafai, Bashir Ahmad Naik, Izhan Javeed, Irshad A. Bhat and Sunil Aggarwal, met the Union Agriculture Minister at his residence to press for immediate government intervention.
The delegation told the Minister that horticulture—particularly apple cultivation—is the backbone of hill-state economies, supporting lakhs of farming families and a wide range of allied activities, including labour employment, transport, cold storage, grading, packaging and wholesale trade. Any policy shock to the apple sector, they said, would have cascading effects across the entire rural economy of the Himalayan region.
Grower representatives expressed deep concern over policy signals emerging from ongoing and proposed trade negotiations with countries such as New Zealand, the European Union, the United States and Chile. They cautioned that even limited tariff-rate quotas with reduced import duties could flood the domestic market with cheaper apples, putting Indian growers at a structural disadvantage.
They pointed out that imported apples often benefit from heavy state subsidies, advanced mechanisation and export incentives in their countries of origin, while Indian growers face rising input costs, climatic uncertainties and logistical challenges. Any reduction from the existing 50 percent customs duty, they warned, would tilt the playing field sharply against domestic producers.
A key concern highlighted was the proposal to allow apple imports starting from March, which coincides with the beginning of India’s apple marketing season. The Forum said such a move would severely damage the extensive cold-store infrastructure created across hill states, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, at enormous public and private cost with support from central and state government incentives.
Allowing imports at the very start of the domestic season would depress prices, erode farmer incomes and render cold storage facilities economically unviable, they said. The impact, the delegation cautioned, would extend beyond growers to transporters, packers, commission agents, daily-wage labourers and thousands of orchard-dependent households.
The Forum submitted a set of specific demands to the Union Agriculture Ministry, including an immediate review and reconsideration of any proposal to reduce apple import duties under the FTA framework; a comprehensive socio-economic impact assessment of existing and proposed FTAs on domestic horticulture; stronger safeguard mechanisms to prevent market flooding and protect domestic prices; and structured engagement with farmer groups during trade negotiations.
The delegation also urged the government to revise the reference (assessing) value of imported apples from the existing ₹50 to ₹90 to prevent under-invoicing and unfair competition.
Members of the delegation said the Union Agriculture Minister gave them a patient hearing and assured them that the interests of India’s farmers would not be compromised under any circumstances, adding that the assurance has provided confidence to growers and cold-chain operators that their concerns will be examined seriously at the highest level.