Indian mushrooms to continue to face anti-dumping duty in US
In a move that could impact Indian mushrooms exporters, the United States has extended the anti-dumping duty on preserved mushroom supplied from India as well as three other countries in the US market for five years. The US regulatory body has extended the duty restriction for the third time since February 1999. “That (the) revocation of the antidumping duty orders on preserved mushrooms from Chile, China, India, and Indonesia would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to an industry in the United States within a reasonably foreseeable time,” said the United States International Trade Commission. Mushroom exports from India to the US dropped significantly in 2014 after fungicides were detected in the mushrooms shipments in 2012. This led to a huge decline in India’s exports, which fell from 25.6 million pounds in 2011 to 1.3 million pounds in 2014. The sharp decline in exports is also attributed to the traces of pesticides in preserved mushrooms shipped from India. During the last financial year, India’s mushrooms exports to the US were worth $16.08 million. The report states that India’s canning industry has a limited modern growing and processing facilities. However, it does have one of the world’s largest mushrooms growing and canning companies with estimated production capacity of 50,000 MT of fresh mushrooms. The report, however, showed confidence in India’s future mushrooms exports, and said, “Exports of preserved mushrooms from India first increased and then declined sharply during the period examined in these reviews. In light of these considerations, we do not find that subject imports from India would likely have no discernible adverse impact on the domestic industry if the order is revoked.” Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir produce a major chunk of the country’s total mushroom. Solan district in Himachal Pradesh is known as 'Mushrooms City of India. Indian mushrooms is exported to the US, UAE, Russia, and Israel. The US and Europe are major consumers of mushrooms, with their per capita consumption being around 2-3 kg. While in India, it is just about 40-50 gm.
August 31, 2015 | 5:42pm IST.
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