The price of apples in Andhra Pradesh is poised to fall in the near future and be sustained at a low, as they can henceforth be imported through a seaport closer home, which reduces the overheads significantly.
It is the public sector Visakhapatnam port that is all set to join four other ports–Nava Seva in Mumbai and Kolkata, Chennai and Cochin ports–as a designated port that can import apples.
This will mainly cut the expenditure hitherto incurred on transportation of the fruit from those long distances to Hyderabad from where wholesalers procure the consignments, and help in maintaining quality.
But one catch in all this is the fruits will remain costly unless cold chain facilities are set up in the proximity of Visakhapatnam and other major markets to get processing and value addition done.
According to Visakhapatnam MP K. Haribabu, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu had instructed the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to take necessary action on the request by BJP leaders from Andhra Pradesh., to allow the import of apples through Vizag port.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Haribabu said, “Nava Seva was the only port through which apples used to be imported into India and that Kolkata, Chennai and Cochin ports got the facility last year. It was one of the issues that a delegation of BJP leaders from the State, have raised in their meeting with Mr. Suresh Prabhu the other day in Delhi.”
Annual imports
A senior official of Andhra Pradesh Food Processing Society said a bulk of the apples consumed in AP was sourced from Bangalore and Hyderabad, and pegged the annual imports by India at about 3.50 lakh metric tons, of which the State procures nearly 20%.
ASSOCHAM Andhra Pradesh State Development Council Co-Chairman P. Bhaskar Rao said apples were mostly imported from the United States and Australia, and the cultivation of the fruit has of late picked up in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam district, particularly Araku and Lambasingi along with coffee.
Cold storages
However, for the permission to Visakhapatnam port to import apples to yield the desired result, the supply chain should have no missing links. Priority should be on setting up cold storages and other issues like licensing importers have to be sorted out, he added.
