Every year, several containers of apples and citrus are shipped to the Indian market, says Amit Gupta of Indian fruit trader Sheemit Agro Fresh. For apples, one variety stands out: "We are a fruit importer, and we several containers of South African apples to India during the season. We also import dozens of containers of South African citrus, so we don't just deal in apples. We do see that certain apple varieties are more popular among the consumers in India, mostly of the gala sub-varieties, such as Gala Beauty and Flash Gala."
It's still early days, but there is already a slight uptick in the prices for Flash Gala apples, Gupta explains. "It's still hard to say how prices differentiate from the previous season overall, but looking at Flash Gala, we do see an increase in the price. We've been importing South African apples for about eight years, and there are very specific challenges that come up regularly, such as highly regulated port issues and delays in transport."
The importer from India went to see the South African apple orchards for themselves and was happy to see the quality, Gupta states: "We recently visited South African apple producers to see if we could find any opportunities. Overall, many of the South African producers are already committed to regular suppliers. That being said, we also noticed that the overall quality of South African apples is better than it was last year. This is positive, as South African imports have to compete with apples from Brazil, New Zealand and the last arrivals of Polish apples as well."
"Overall, we'd love to find more companies to collaborate with, in order to bring more South African apples to the Indian market. Since the consumer in India prefers Gala apples, this is the variety we're looking to import to India," Gupta concludes.
For more information:
Amit Gupta
Sheemit Agro Fresh
Tel: +91 982 44 08 886
amitkgupta1409@gmail.com