INDUSTRY NEWS
Indian trade agreement a massive win for almonds
LATE last year , the Australia-India Economic Co-operation Trade Agreement ( AI-ECTA ) came into effect bringing with it a raft of benefits to the Australian almond industry . The agreement establishes new and commercially significant market access opportunities for a range of Australian agricultural commodity exporters , including almonds . India has been a significant and important trade partner for Australian almonds and the new AI- ECTA brings enormous benefits to both countries . As part of the agreement , tariffs will be reduced on a wide range of export markets . In 2021-22 , Australia exported A $ 772 million of agricultural , fisheries and forestry ( AFF ) products to India . This accounted for 1.1 % of Australia ’ s total AFF exports and 2 % or India ’ s total imports . Key Australian AFF exports to India included :
• A $ 112 million of almonds
• A $ 213 million of lentils
• A $ 157 million of wool
• A $ 138 million of cotton Australian AFF exports to India peaked at A $ 3.38 billion in 2016-17 on the back of then-record grain and pulse production ( see Figure 1 below ). Since then , Australian exports have declined . This is due to changes to Indian tariffs on grains and pulses and reduced Australian pulse production .
Under AI-ECTA , tariff rates on a range of Australian crops will be bound at zero . This will provide Australian exporters with more certainty on Indian tariffs when planning their crops . Australian almonds will benefit from an immediate tariff reduction of 50 per cent to a quota of 34,000 tonnes per year . The current tariff is Rs 35 / kg for in shell almonds and Rs 100 / kg for shelled almonds . The majority of Australian almonds are exported to India in shell . For more information on the new Australia-India trade agreement ,
click here .
industry . australianalmonds . com . au
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