In India apple war, Iran takes bite out of United States

The rivalry between the US and Iran is playing out in the Indian fruit markets. Apples imported from the Islamic nation have taken a bite out of the market share of the popular Washington apples. Chetan Chauhan reports. Fight for the pie

Updated on: Apr 29, 2013, 01:14:47 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The rivalry between the US and Iran is playing out in the Indian fruit markets. Apples imported from the Islamic nation have taken a bite out of the market share of the popular Washington apples.

India allowed import of apples from Iran earlier this year, and the first batch reached Delhi's Azadpur - Asia's biggest fruit market which supplies products to the entire country - in February.

"After the arrival of Iranian apples, the price of Washington apples crashed by 20%," said trader Rinkle Singh.

Apples from the US, sold at a wholesale rate of Rs. 90-120 per kg, faced little competition at Azadpur. But that changed once the Iranian fruit, priced at Rs. 50-70 per kg, sent the price for Washington apples crashing to Rs. 60-90 per kg.

Chinese apples, still the most popular import, cost Rs. 40-50 per kg, while Indian apples cost Rs. 60-70 per kg.

Trader Ranjit Singh Kohli said Iranian apples, which arrived in huge numbers, are a hit because of their size, colour and quality.

Because of trade restrictions against Iran, apples from the country had few takers internationally until India, which has a Rs. 50,000 crore apple market, allowed the import.

But the friendly gesture has had ramifications back home.

Virbhadra Singh, chief minister of India's biggest apple producing state, Himachal Pradesh, asked the Centre to impose restrictions on apple import to help domestic producers.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah made a similar request.

Of the total number of apples sold in India, 80% are indigenously produced.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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