EU lifts ban on mango imports from India

The 28-member European Union (EU) on Tuesday decided to lift a seven-month-long ban on importing mangoes from India. An audit by the EU's food and veterinary office in India in September 2014 showed significant improvement in the country's phytosanitary export certification system, the bloc said.

However, the ban on the import of some vegetables such as brinjals continued and would be reviewed after collecting more evidence, the EU stated.

The 'temporary ban' on mango imports from India was put in place on May 1 last year and was to remain until December this year. This followed authorities in Brussels finding consignments of Alphonso mangoes infested with fruit flies which, they feared, could damage European salad crops.

After a meeting on Tuesday, the EU said, "India has provided assurances appropriate measures are now available to ensure the export of mangos are free from quarantine pests such as fruit flies, not known to occur in the Union." Doing away with the ban would allow the import of mangoes before the start of the next import season in March, the statement said.

"The EU ban was due to remain until December 2015, but today's vote shows the hard work of the Indian authorities has paid off," Lord de Mauley, Britain's environment minister, said.

British high commissioner in India, James Bevan, said: "This is great news for the UK-India and EU-India trade relationship, especially for Indian exporters and UK consumers. The British government worked hard to have the ban lifted. This includes sending an expert to provide technical training, prior to the EU inspection in September."

Now, the decision has to be formally adopted and published by the European Commission.

The EU accounts for about half of the overall fruit and vegetable exports from India. Within the EU, the UK accounts for the most, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

Of its annual production of 1.5-1.6 million tonnes, India sells 65,000-70,000 tonnes in the global market. In 2013-14, India exported mangoes worth $8.9 million to the EU. In 2013-14, India exported mangoes worth $50.7 million. For the first six months of this financial year, mango exports stood at $43.9 million.

Rafeeque Ahmed, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said due to the ban, mango exports to the EU fell from $8.9 million in 2013-14 to $1.07 million in 2014-15 (April-September).