China, US threat to India's walnut exports

Walnut exports from India to Europe are threatened by Chinese and US products as the country's largest producer fo the fruit, Jammu and Kashmir, is grappling with raw material supply constraints.

"Despite a great demand from Europe the state has not been able to increase its production due to constraints in raw material supply," Jammu and Kashmir State Industrial Development Corporation Senior Manager Sajad R Qadri said.

He said last year the state exported walnuts worth Rs 110 crore and "the figure is expected to remain more or less the same".

"India's market share in Europe is about 18 per cent and with tough competition from China and the US there is a great challenge ahead of the exporters here," Qadri said.

Echoing similar sentiments, city-based Kashmir Kessar Mart owner Noor-U-Din-Azad, whose company clocked a turnover of Rs 35 crore last year, said, "The growth is expected to remain flat."

"It is not because there is no demand. We are unable to supply as we have limited raw materials."

Azad said the company had got into contract farming but "that has been of help only in maintaining a steady supply not in increasing production".

He said with Europe asking for all the grades of walnut""light house, light amber, brown and dark brown""the continent held a lot of potential for the type of walnut available in the state.

"If we are able to increase our production, we should be able to hold off the challenge from China and the US," he added.

Agreeing with Azad, another Srinagar-based walnut exporter Sahil Enterprise owner Showkeet Hussain said with limited supply of raw material it was not easy to meet demand for both the export market and domestic consumption.

"Often during the festive season, we face the tricky situation whether we export or sell it to the domestic market, where the margins are at least 25 per cent higher as only top grade walnuts are preferred in India," Hussain said.

Realising the problem, the state has taken steps to increase raw material supply.

"We are providing good walnut seeds to farmers for better harvest and not only this the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology has also been working in developing a new variety of walnut," Qadri of JKSIDCO said.

"Currently, it is in trial stage, the plants are smaller but the yield is more. Once this is approved and released to farmers, then the raw material constraints must be removed to a great extent," he added.

Till that time, walnut exporters from the state have their tasks cut out to fend of the challenge of Chinese and US walnuts in Europe.