NAGPUR: Indian orange growers and exporters are bearing the brunt of heavy import duty levied by the Bangladesh government on oranges. The export market is dipping year by year in absence of any treaty or agreement on the sale and purchase of orange or for that matter all fruits from India.
Shridhar Thakre, Executive director Maha Orange, an orange growers' cooperative told TOI that there is virtually no or minimal import duty levied on oranges bought by Bangladesh from countries like China, Bhutan and Pakistan. This is pushing the Indian orange exporter out of the market. Maha Orange has successfully revived two orange processing units at Karanja and Morshi and is now exporting oranges to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
"Bangladesh is the biggest available export market for not just orange but most of the fruits. But since there is no agreement or policy between the two countries on sale and purchase of these fruits Bangladesh levies a huge import duty (as high as 5.4 lakh per truck of 15-17 ton capacity. Until 3-4 years beauty was just Rs45-50,000 per truck. This increases the price of orange so much in the Bangladesh market that despite a huge demand from there only limited supply is possible. There the average man doesn't get to eat oranges and hence the narrowing of the market. Both countries need to sit together to resolve the issue. We can't afford to lose this market," said Thakre.
Thakre however is hopeful of improvement in the situation in the near future. "We have discussed the issue with Nitin Gadkari, the union transport ministry. He promised to discuss the issue at centre to evolve some policy on the fruit," he said.
Mohammad Juber Mohammad Afzal, an exporter to Bangladesh from Warud since last 15 years also voices the same concerns. He says that when India imports apple from USA it forces India to reduce the import duty to retain the market. "Our quality of fruit is much better than the orange from Bhutan, Pakistan and China yet we land up selling only a very small fraction to Bangladesh despite the huge market due to the duty. The more we can export the more profit we can pass on to our farmers. But due to lack of any policy on orange we have to face this situation," said Afzal.
An expert exporter not willing to be quoted told TOI that there are huge financial irregularities in the orange and other fruits trade. Heavy import duty forces the exporter to under invoicing. This causes huge loss to the exporter which he otherwise gets in the form of export incentives of the India government. "The whole export of fruits and vegetable between India and Bangladesh is operated on hawala. This adds up to the mess in transparency in the system," he said.
