India could become Zespri’s fifth-biggest kiwifruit market

Zespri CEO Jason Te Brake has told the New Zealand Herald that India could become the country’s fifth-most-important kiwifruit market, after the two countries signed a free trade agreement in April.

“Opportunity-wise, we’re looking at 1.4 billion people and, if you even just met 5 per cent of that market, you’re talking about 70mn or 80mn people,” he told the newspaper. “So there’s big opportunity in terms of being able to grow India to our fifth biggest market after Europe, China, Japan and the US.”

And while he pointed out that it would probably take around a decade to realise that goal, Te Brake agreed that New Zealand’s new-found market advantages put it in a strong position to grow its exports to the market.

The agreement makes New Zealand the first foreign kiwifruit supplier to be granted tariff-free access – removing a previous 33 per cent import duty on its 15,000 tonne annual quota – and reduces the previous 66.5 per cent tariff on additional exports to 16.5 per cent.

Te Brake noted that, despite its limited commercial activity in India to date, there was already reasonably good recognition of the Zespri brand among Indian consumers.

“People have an affinity for Zespri and for SunGold kiwifruit,” he suggested. “So there’s quite a latent demand there that we would be able to build into.”