India and Australia have concluded a market access accord to allow the entry of Australian walnuts in the vast Indian market.
David Littleproud, Australian Agriculture Minister said the two countries have signed a market access deal on 6th February 2019 with trade set to formally start once the import conditions are formally gazetted by the authorities in India.
Littleproud said in the short-term, ten trial shipments of Australian walnuts will reach India before the trade doors open officially.
The minister also said, “Many Australians do not realise that a scientific market access accord is often the hardest part of getting access to a new market. Getting researchers from two nations to agree on how to stop any diseases or pests threat being exported from one nation to another can be very difficult”.
He further said, “We have managed to win accord with our Indian allies and this means walnut growers in Australia can sell their clean, green product to India”. Littleproud said, “We talked with the industry through the Hort Innovation Australia prioritisation procedure and industry selected walnut market access as a main priority”.
He told that since then the Australian agriculture counsellor in India has worked with the Agriculture Department, Foreign Affairs and Trade Department and the walnut industry to get this right of entry.”
He highlighted the fact that around 1.4 billion people live in India, which is almost 50 times the number of people in Australia and hence it is as “a huge market” to access. The minister also mentioned India is already a huge export market for the Australian almonds hence there is vast potential for other nuts to be exported there too.
Australian Walnuts worth 22.5 million dollars were exported around the world in the year 2017-18. Moreover, the export value for Australian agricultural commodities to India has increased by 329 % since 2013 and it was worth 2.6 billion dollars in 2017.
Australia also obtained market access for its blueberries in late 2015 and they are available in many Indian stores.
