India's fresh fruit imports are dominated by apples, which, in volume terms, account for more than 75 per cent of the total fruit imports. Import of apples grew to 122,878 tonnes in 2010, from 90,714 tonnes in the previous year - an increase of 35.5 per cent.

The apple imports into India rose further to 162,651 tonnes in 2011, as per provisional figures. As per trade sources, the main suppliers of apple to India in 2010 were China 58,289 tonnes, United States 30,660 tonnes, and Chile 25,442 tonnes. Imports from China's grew by 61 per cent compared to the previous year and from Chile by 21 per cent, while that from the United states declined by 25 per cent. India also imports apples from New Zealand (6,050 tonnes) and Australia (1,104 tonnes).

Besides apples, other fruits coming into India include Pears (17,659 tonnes accounting for 10.9 per cent of the total share of fresh fruit imports), oranges 10,166 tonnes -6.3 per cent), Kiwifruit (3,238 tonnes - 2 per cent), grapes (2,664 tonnes -1.6 per cent), plums 673 tonnes - (0.4 per cent) and others (5,136 tonnes - 3.2 per cent). A good quantity of high quality flowers are also coming from Thailand, China, Holland, etc for special occasions by event and marriage organizers.

"To synthesize the efforts of all concerned departments, we are organizing an International Conference / Workshop and Training Programme for progressive flower farmers and agri entrepreneurs. This will be held concurrently with the expo. It will help promote backward and forward linkages that will benefit the farming community", elaborated Jafar.

Source:-www.equitybulls.com