Grape exports to European Union countries from India’s primary production hub of Maharashtra State are up by 2,000 tonnes year-on-year in the season-to-date, according to official figures.
Pandurang Watharkar, director of processing and planning at the Maharashtra State Department of Agriculture, told the Times of India that growers had shipped some 8,326 tonnes of grapes to the EU as of mid-March, up from 6,360 tonnes by 14 March last year.
Growers have been receiving Rs40-60 (US$0.80-1.20) for their fruit from exporters, according to Watharkar, who said those figures were higher than domestic prices.
Maharashtra accounts for around 95 per cent of India’s grape exports, with the season running from February to May.
Despite the recovery in export volumes, he said that total EU-bound shipments for the season were unlikely to rebound to the levels of 2009, when some 37,000 tonnes were shipped to the region.
Many farmers have become wary about shipping to the EU after the disastrous 2010 season, when residue detections of the plant growth regulator Chlormequat Chloride Component resulted in the rejection of multiple containers of Indian grapes, Watharkar pointed out.
“The losses were so heavy that many farmers stayed away from export to the EU, despite it being the most lucrative market,” he told the Times of India. “Farmers instead concentrated on the Gulf market and some preferred selling into the domestic market to cut losses.”
In 2011, most farmers opted to sell their produce in the domestic market to recover their losses, Watharkar added.
Another factor restricting growers from shipping to the EU appears to be the increased market compliance costs entailed by extra residue-testing requirements.
“We have to fill out various documents and conduct chemical residue tests on the fruit before exporting grapes to EU countries,” one unnamed grape grower told the newspaper. “The number of tests has increased from around 70 to nearly 170. A farmer’s business is generally based on borrowing money and repaying it after harvesting the crop. Small farmers cannot afford the delays in payment realisation from export, so they prefer to sell their produce in the local market.”
While the Gulf countries take around 50,000 tonnes of Indian grapes and have far less stringent testing requirements, according to the Times of India’s report, the returns from the region’s markets are much lower.
