Slowly but surely, Italy is winning market share in India’s competitive apple import market. However, reports of a lighter domestic apple crop out of India this season won’t necessarily accelerate growth plans, according to Nicola Zanotelli, export manager of Italian export marketing alliance From.
“The expectation is surely to see more room for imports, in order to overcome the lack of internal production, but to what extent this will benefit high-end products from the US or Europe is still unknown,” Zanotelli explained.
“I think more than the situation in India itself, we will have to watch the overall sales figures from a general point of view. Being a very price sensitive market, India represents an additional market where we can place potential oversupply.”
Zanotelli said awareness of Italian fruit is quite high amongst Indian importers and traders, with suppliers from the European nation working to educate their customers about the “high degree of care” that goes into producing their offerings. The challenge now is relaying this message to end consumers.
“Still to be conquered is the knowledge within final customers about the premium quality of these fruits,” Zanotelli told Asiafruit. “Eventually, under the current market and currency conditions, we expect a steady increase in volumes going into the Indian subcontinent.”
The varieties Italy sells to India are mainly Royal Gala and Red Delicious, Zanotelli adds. “It’s definitely a red apple market as far as the Indian consumer is concerned.”
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