Poland plans to export apples to India after Russia ban

 The Dollar Business Bureau | @TheDollarBiz

China accounts for almost half of all apple imports by India.

  Poland is keen to begin apple imports to India following the ban on imports of fruits and vegetables by Russia, the largest importer of Polish apples. Poland is EU’s largest apple producer and exporter. Poland’s apple production is estimated at around 2.9 million tons of which the country exports around 900,000 tonnes. Russia which is also the world’s largest importer of apples, used to be the largest destination for Polish apples, accounting for around 55% of Poland’s total exports. However, Russia’s food monitoring agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, banned all fruits and vegetable imports from USA and EU last week due to the Ukraine crisis. The ban is likely to hit hard apple growers in Poland. According to sources, Poland’s agriculture minister, Marek Sawicki, has already sought monetary compensation from the European Commission and the Polish apple industry is talks with Russia to revoke the ban, but is also looking for alternative markets, such as USA, North Africa, Persian Gulf and India. This week, the chairman of the Polish Fruit Growers Association Miroslaw Maliszewski told Polish Radio that Polish apple exporters are planning to visit India and commence exports to India this year if everything works well. However, this might be challenging considering the domestic situation in India. India is the world’s fifth largest producer of apples with an annual production of about 2.2 million tonnes. India also imports around 186,000 tonnes of apples per year with China accounting for nearly half of those imports. However, apple growers in India say that they cannot compete with imported apples from China and are upset with the government for not increasing import tariff on apples from the current 50%.