Visakhapatnam: Battle of foreign brands in apple market

Visakhapatnam: China, New Zealand, Chile and Italy are offering apples from Washington tough competition in India. “Washington’s market share is about 25 per cent due to smaller production and a constrained crop this season,” said  Washington Apple Commission (WAC) president Todd Fryhover.

The Washington Apple Commission (WAC) is an industry initiated self-governing body made up of apple growers and packers from Washington. “We have generally held a 40 per cent market share and have had peaks of 55 per cent. We expect our share to be back to over 40 per cent during the 2016-17 season.  China, New Zealand, Chile and Italy are the main competing countries in the imported apple segment, but the Indian domestic apple is the toughest competition in the country,” Mr Fryhover said.

The most favoured variety in India, imported from Washington, is Red Delicious. Apart from this, Granny Smith and Gala are also imported in limited quantities as also Fuji, Cripps Pink and Honeycrisp. Both the Telugu-speaking states are considered to be the steady growth markets for Washington apples.

The Washington Apple Commission had recently launched a 70-city national campaign, called ‘The Washington Apple Wagon Tour’, across India, especially in Tier II and III cities. The  Wagon Tour, had recently touched Vizag in AP.

India is the 4th largest export market for Washington apples after Canada, Mexico and Taiwan, as per current data available till March 2016 for the September-August marketing year. India imported 1.97 lakh tonnes of apples worth Rs 1,389 crore in 2014-15 and 1.75 lakh tonnes worth Rs 1,176 crore in 2013-14, according to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

The Nhava Sheva Sea accounted for 51.5 per cent of imports, followed by the Chennai Sea and Cochin Sea, which account for 39.1 per cent and 4.8 per cent of imports respectively.