US market share in apples, almonds, and walnuts plunged in five years

Similarly, the US-dominated as the source of shelled walnuts for India at 70% share in FY18 with Chile at a distant second with a 29.7% share

Retaliatory tariffs by India in 2019 on farm produce from the US have led to trade diversion, with countries like Turkey, Italy, and Chile replacing America as the key source of apples, walnuts, and almonds while imports from the US have seen a substantial decline in the past five years.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US last week, both sides agreed to partially withdraw the market access barriers built during the Donald Trump presidency. Before the retaliatory tariffs came, the US had the top share in imports of fresh apples by India — at 39.5 per cent in FY18.

In FY23, the its position declined to 11th with only a 1.2 per cent proportion in India’s apple imports, with Turkey, Iran and Italy having the highest shares.

Similarly, the US dominated as the source of shelled walnuts at a 70 per cent share in FY18 with Chile was at a distant second with 29.7 per cent. However, in FY23, Chile had 75.2 per cent with the US’ share reducing to 14.8 per cent.

The UAE, Australia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam slowly increased their market shares.

In shelled almonds, the US was the top source for India with a 40 per cent share in imports in FY18, followed by Afghanistan, Australia, Iran, and Syria. However, by FY23, Afghanistan had taken over as the top exporter with a 38.8 per cent share while the US was a distant second with 28 per cent, closely followed by Iran with 20.6 per cent. However, despite an increase in duty on imports of almonds in shell from the US, its share increased from 83.7 per cent in FY18 to 93.8 per cent in FY23, possibly because the US is the largest producer of almonds and India remains the top buyer of California almonds.

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement said removing these tariffs was a major win for America’s farmers, building on the $15 billion in new or preserved market access for agricultural products that the United States Department of Agriculture and United States Trade Representative have delivered under the Biden-Harris Administration.

“Producers will now be able to increase sales of apples, chickpeas, lentils, almonds, and walnuts to one of the United States’ top trading partners,” he added. Congresswoman Suzan DelBene in a statement said the agreement was a major win for Washington’s apple growers, who were dependent on markets overseas.

“For five years, India’s retaliatory tariffs have severely restricted US apples from being sold in the Indian market, hurting our growers and the over 68,000 jobs in Washington they support,” she added.

While India agreed to remove retaliatory additional customs duty imposed in 2019 on items such as lentils, almonds, walnuts, apples, chickpeas, boric acid and diagnostic reagents, the US agreed to allow 70 per cent and 80 per cent of total exports of steel and aluminium products, respectively, originating from India without imposing additional customs duty under the US Section 232 National Security Measures.