As the threat of cataclysmic codling moth and pests looms large on the Rs 5000 crore  Apple industry, apple and kiwi growers from Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh have urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to ban the import of apple and kiwis including plant material from Iran and other countries with an immediate effect as both plants and fruits are infected with “some serious cataclysmic pests” that, in turn, can ruin the apple and kiwi economy of the Himalayan region.

What is more more serious is this: codling moth, which is unknown in India is detected in some apple consignments in some cases in markets in Bihar and Bengal this year, revealed  importers, requesting anonymity. 

The Centre has learnt to have banned import of the Kiwis from Iran early this month soon after the pests were detected in the imported kiwi shipments from Iran,  but the ministry has done nothing to ban import of infected apples from Iran despite the fact that Russia has banned import of Iranian apples on this ground much earlier.

The cheap and the infected Iranian apples are being sold at Rs 50 to Rs 75 per kg in markets across the country these days. In season arrival of Iranian apple  is as high as 150 tonne per day. This has  hit  the markets the disease-free high quality domestic apples from Himachal Pradesh  that farmers have stored in CAS stores across the country this  season in the coming  months, the farmers resented. 

Not only this, the growers and traders reveal that the kiwis, along apples and plant materials from Iran are being dumped into the Indian markets from hawala channels via Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Iranian apples is coming in non-recyclable plastic crates that pose double risk to the environment as these are dumped in the market yards and else where under the nose of the local municipalities.  

Russia has banned import of Iranian apple following the high infection of fruit last year. Iran has witnessed bumper crop of apple this year and the fruit is being dumped in markets in the country as the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has not banned import of Iranian apples.

The farmers say the unregulated import of infected fruits and plant material from Iran is not only pose grave risk to the apple and kiwi industry of Himachal and Arunachal Pradesh, but also to the consumers across the country.

“Last year we had written to the union government to ban imported kiwi an apple from Iran as they were not up to the mark of the phytosanitary standards”, said Lokinder Bisht, President of Progressive Growers Association(PGA), Shimla. The government this year has banned import of kiwi from Iran but no decision has been taken about apples. We have written this year again seeking a ban on import of Iranian apple”, he said citing the copy of the letters submitted to the Ministry.

What is worrying the growers is that Russia has banned apple from Iran and as a result that fruit will enter India now in large volume as importers are making good profit in this trade.

Bisht in the letter to the agriculture ministry and farmers welfare said the centre should ban the import of apple from Iran with immediate effect as Russia has done to save the apple industry and local flora and fauna from pest infection as it is a grave issue.   

Vice-chancellor, Dr YS Parmar university of horticulture and forestry, Nauni Prof Parvinder Kaushal said  as per the report from the department of Pathology, there is no report of any import of apple and kiwi from the Iran in Himachal. “As far is the ban is concerned it is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare”, he said.

The farmers fear “mutation of pests” as India is getting apples  and plant material from different countries over the last few years under the Rs 1047 crore horticulture modernisation project while certain groups of farmers are also getting the imported plant material from other countries including Italy, USA, New Zealand, Germany and Siberia.  

In 2018-19, the USA had supplied about one million apple cartons to India, But the government has raised anti-tariff barriers to salvage domestic producers that consequently cut the import of US apples to India drastically in the post-Covid period.

But the India has entered into agreement with Italy for import of apple recently provided the exporters comply with the non-genetically modified pre-shipments phytosanitary certificate to the Indian authorities.

The supply of apples from Italy has been growing since 2018-19 when the Italy had supplied over 48000 tonnes of apple.   This year it could be more. The farmers were also given   lakhs of apple plant material from Italy under the project, whose results remained far from  satisfactory with survival rates in many cases remaining below 50 per cent,   said the farmers.  

Even the agents are suppling the imported plant material to the growers directly without following pre-quarantine and post-quarantine procedure mandatory for the foreign plants, the growers said. Many agents are making money as they get cheaper plant material from the hawala channels and sell the plants to the farmers at exorbitant rates, said the farmers.  

As far as apple import is concerned, apart from Italy, Chile, Turkey and Iran are also exporting apples in  Indian markets that has heightened their  phytosanitary concern  over the import of  pests and other infections, said the growers.  

Because of the ban, import of Iranian kiwis has been cut this year and  Arunachal’s kiwis has  become a hit in markets in India giving good profits to the farmers.  Even politicians are enjoying free gifts from Arunachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Union Lawa Minister Kiren Rijiju.

TMC flamboyant MP Mohua Moitra  tweeted as saying she thanked Pema Khandu for the lovely box of organic Arunachal’s  Kiwi fruit and urge everybody to buy it.

In fact, India suspended kiwi import from Iran from December 7,  saying that they would not entertain physio sanitary certificates,  which is mandatory in global trade of certain fruits issued by the Persian Gulf Countries following consistent interception of consignment with pests, reported a business daily.

India imports kiwis from Italy and Iran but Iranian kiwis are cheaper as importers preferred Irian fruit as it gives them greater profit margins.

But as soon as the Indian physio sanitary authorities detected pest in the kiwi consignments, the agriculture ministry banned the import from Iran from the first week of December and wrote to the national plant protection organization of Iran,  citing detection of ‘aspidiotus nerii’  pest in consignments. The ban will stay  till the revision of the pest risk analysis. 

(Kuldeep Chauhan is Editor and Publisher HimbuMail Voice of Himalayan people )