Copy of cover story published in IndiaSpend on 30 Jan., 2015
R. Dinakar, January 30, 2015
Last summer was a bonanza
for mango lovers in India. Shoppers were pleasantly surprised to find the king
of them all, Alphonso mangoes, piled up on street-carts, alongside the more
affordable range of Langra, Dashehari,
and Chausa.
Alphonso prices had
crashed, thanks to a European Union (EU) ban on mango imports from India.
At the heart of the ban was
a tiny fruit fly. Importing countries feared that this exotic pest would infest
and destroy their local crops, such as lettuce, cucumber and tomato.
India is the world’s
largest producer of mangoes. Its annual output, at 18-19 million metric tonnes
(MT), is about 40 per cent of the world’s production. Yet, only a tiny fraction
of production, 41,280 MT in 2013-14 or 0.2%, is exported.
Compare this to the world’s
no.1 exporter, Mexico. This South American nation produces some 1.6 million MT
of mangoes, and exports about 270,000 MT. That’s around 17 percent!
India’s exports were worth
Rs 285 crore in 2013-14 and Rs 265 crore the year before, according to APEDA
(Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) data.
About 60 per cent of its exports are to the United Arab Emirates. Shipments to
the EU were around 4,000 tonnes, valued at Rs 50 crore in 2012-13.
In April last year, plant
quarantine authorities in Brussels found Indian consignments infested with
fruit flies. Mango imports were banned in May, until December 2015.
This
week, an EU committee endorsed a proposal of the European Commission to lift the banon the import of mangoes from India, citing “significant
improvements” in its certification system.
Export of fruits and vegetables
is a complicated business, more so when each country has its own set of
requirements.
Japan insists on mangoes
being subjected to treatment with hot vapours. The US and Australia buy only
irradiated fruits, while others, including the EU, specify hot-water treatment.
These
diverse requirements obviously add to export costs. In its advisory to exporters, APEDA specifies that the costs of positioning foreign
inspectors, whether American or Japanese, must be borne by export-facility
owners.
Last
year, India raised these requirements as a “specific trade concern” at the World Trade Organisation, pointing out that the high cost of certification, on account
of supervision by US inspectors, made Indian mangoes uncompetitive.
Two developments have
somewhat turned the tide in India’s favour.
The first was a report by
the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in October and, more recently, a
clarification issued by the EU that its ban is being lifted this year on an
assurance from India that all consignments would be processed in APEDA’s
hot-water treatment facilities and duly certified before being exported.
The
FAO report is quite significant. Until
recently, it was assumed that fruit flies were pests unique to India. The EU,
USA, Japan and Australia had imposed similar restrictions on imports from other
tropical countries, citing infestations from Oriental, Philippine, Invasive and
Asian Papaya fruit flies.
A
multinational research effort was launched by FAO in 2009 involving nearly 50
researchers from 20 countries. In October 2014, the research team came to an
unequivocal conclusion: four of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests are
actually the same fruit fly.
Therefore, all four
previously-considered distinct fruit-fly species will now be combined under the
single name: Bactrocera dorsalis, the
oriental fruit fly.
An oriental fruit fly laying eggs in a papaya, Credit: Wikimedia
“This outcome has major implications for global plant biosecurity, especially for developing countries in Africa and Asia,” said Mark Schutze, lead author of the FAO study. “The fruit fly has devastated African fruit production with crop losses exceeding 80 percent and has led to widespread trade restrictions with refusal of shipments of products into Asia, Europe and Japan, and significant economic and social impacts on farming communities”.
Precise identification of
pests is central to pest management. Now scientists can focus their attention
on developing standard protocols introducing bio-markers and insect
birth-control techniques. Standard methods like the introduction of mass-produced
sterile Oriental fruit fly males can now be used against all the different
populations of this major pest.
Trade barriers based on
fears of ‘exotic fruit fly infestation’, may soon become a thing of the past. This
season, Alphonso mangoes may not be available for discounted prices in your
local market, but the summer of 2015 may turn out to be a happy one for mango
farmers, as well as other fruit & vegetable exporters in India.
(Dinakar
R. is deputy
general manager with Biotech Consortium India Ltd. These are his personal
views.)
__________________________________
REFERENCES:
* FAO: Four in One – New Discovery on Pest Fruit
Flies (28 Oct., 2014) -- http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/262972/icode/
* WTO – Meeting of the Committee on Sanitary and
PhytosanitaryMeaaures (15-17 Oct., 2014) -
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/sps_e/agenda_oct14_e.pdf
* APEDA Advisories-
* ToI
(6 May 2014) - UK help sought to lift EU ban on Indian mangoes -- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/UK-help-sought-to-lift-EU-ban-on-Indian-mangoes/articleshow/34748433.cms
* Mint
(8Jan 2015 -LiveMint) –EU agrees to lift ban on Alphonso mangoes - http://www.livemint.com/Politics/fMXWwNQ0ZCL5ZjVAoGyhGI/EU-agrees-to-lift-import-ban-on-Alphonso-mangoes.html
