MP seeks special product tag for apple

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 3

MP Virender Kashyap today demanded inclusion of Himachal apple in the special product category to safeguard the livelihood and economy of apple growers.

Kashyap requested Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu to increase the import duty on apple from the WTO-bound rate of 50 per cent to check the import the surge from the USA, Australia, New Zealand and China. He said it was a matter of concern that the apple import from these countries had increased from 1,22,265 tonnes to 3,00,000 tonnes in the last five years, which had adversely hit the domestic apple growers. “The rate of domestic apple has crashed in the market, causing huge losses to the growers,” he said. The craze for foreign apple in Indian consumers’ mindset had lowered the demand of domestic apple although delicious Himachali apple far surpassed its imported fruit in taste and quality. Kashyap stated that apple was the source of income of more than 1.60 lakh families in the state and was cultivated in nine out of 12 districts.

Himachal is acclaimed as the “apple state of the country” due to its supremacy in producing quality apple and it is the lone cash crop of the people living in remote, inaccessible and tribal snow-bound areas. The subsistence of a majority of the people is dependent on remunerative prices of the apple crop, which has a short season from June to September. At present, apple is cultivated over around 2.89 lakh hectares in the country with the production of about 29.00 lakh tonnes being confined to the Himalayan states.

He requested the Union Minister to direct the Central agencies for undertaking innovate research in domestic apple and enhance infrastructural facilities like cold storage, food processing in the apple growing belt. Study tours of growers to the developed countries should also be arranged.

Domestic apple growers hit

• MP Virender Kashyap requested Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu to increase the import duty on apple from the WTO-bound rate of 50 per cent to check the import the surge from the USA, Australia, New Zealand and China. 
• He said it was a matter of concern that the apple import from these countries had increased from 1,22,265 tonnes to 3,00,000 tonnes in the last five years, which had adversely hit the domestic apple growers.