Mangoes are a delicacy throughout Europe, especially countries with a colonial legacy in south-east Asia and South America. Of the many varieties of mangoes flooding the European markets, the Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), Alphonso occupies the pride of place on Western plates. It is also used to flavor different dishes from the main course right up to puddings and desserts. Now, mangoes have become the centre of a conflict between EU food inspectors and the Indian government. EU has banned import of Indian mangoes of all varieties from May 1 due to the discovery of fruit flies in some consignments. India exports roughly 5 percent of its annual produce of the fruit to EU. Other countries might follow the example of EU and India might have to face import ban on mangoes from elsewhere too.
This will put domestic growers and exporters in difficulty. Local markets in India have the capacity to absorb the extra supply but prices will come down drastically. Cancelled orders from EU will also mean a huge loss due to investments already made in packaging, storage and labour wages. Above all, the loss of reputation assiduously built over the last few decades will be impossible to salvage. Indian mangoes had the reputation of being the best quality products grown in hygienic conditions, packed and dispatched as per the stringent EU conditions. What happened suddenly that the discovery of flies in some consignments resulted in a blanket ban?
Before this ban, an indication of the coming trouble was available when the UK informed the Indian government of having found fruit flies and Thirps palmi in vegetable, especially bitter gourd or karela, consignments from West Bengal. The government had, as a self regulation, banned export of vegetables to the UK. At that time, the inspectors at the UK labs had clearly informed the press and the government that mangoes and aubergines (brinjals) were also under watch. People everywhere are very concerned about their health, and the governments of some countries are extra careful as outbreak of diseases from imported merchandise can be difficult to control. Also, it puts an undue load on their health services. If it can be prevented by stringent checks at points of entry, these countries will do all and employ state of art equipment to protect their citizens. Why then did the Indian government and the concerned exporters associations, not take appropriate measures to ensure mango and vegetable export consignments were up to stringent EU standards?
But there is a catch here which has made some domain watchers question whether there is a larger design behind these maneuvers by the EU. While the West Bengal consignments did immense harm to the image of Indian agricultural produce and later investigation by the local press found that despite warnings, exporters had not upgraded the testing facilities, the banning of mango consignments have drawn ire due to the timing of the ban as well as the increased vigilance on Indian farm produce. India has been exporting these items for years. Nothing has changed so drastically in farming or packaging technology in India that suggests that these might have become unsuitable for export to EU. None of the EU countries have reported outbreak of any disease as a result of consumption of farm produce from India. How, then, has Indian farm produce suddenly become unpalatable for EU palates?
The crux of the matter lies in the EU request to Indian government to lower import duties on its wines and spirits. The EU believes these duties are acting as trade barriers. Some analysts are of the opinion that EU is using its phyto-sanitary standards against Indian imports in an attempt to force it to lower the duties and relax trade rules for EU exports. Indian origin British MP Keith Vaz has termed the ban as “Euro-nonsense and bureaucracy gone mad.”
India has the option of further increasing the duties on EU wines and spirits or banning them altogether to escalate the tiff into a full scale trade war or identifying other EU imports to achieve the same results. What the EU is doing by what India calls non-tariff barriers is plain intimidation. For, fruit flies have been found earlier too and the consignments had been impounded and dealt with according to the rule book. This time, however, the EU is bent on getting concessions for its products by banning imports altogether.
Although health concerns of importers have to be looked into and India has to upgrade facilities, but India cannot allow EU to browbeat it in this manner. For, today it seems that the battle is between mangoes and vegetables versus wines and spirits. Tomorrow, it will be something else. Once they have their way by applying pressure, they will continue to pick different items from the export basket and get concessions for themselves. India has to analyze the loss-benefit scenario and stand up to this bullying by the EU in the best possible manner.
Source: http://www.theindianrepublic.com
No comments:
Post a Comment