The project builds on earlier efforts of sending scientists from Plant and Food Research (now under the Bioeconomy Science Institute) to the region to help growers improve production.
New centres will be established in India for kiwifruit development too.
Danielle Adsett, chief executive of industry group New Zealand Apples and Pears, was accompanied by special agricultural trade envoy Nathan Guy on the trip in late September and early October.
She said the project was a result of FTA provisions.
“India should absolutely benefit. For New Zealand, we have been provided with tariff concessions and a quota.
“So that’s what we managed to get on the table, and the co-operation plan is what we offered up to get that result.”
Adsett said India deeply trusted New Zealand and its expertise, and there were good opportunities to help Indian growers increase productivity on their orchards.
Indian apples sat in a different market segment to more premium New Zealand apples, and would also be counter-seasonal.
“India relies on imported apples, and they’ve got 1.4 billion people to feed.
“And India fundamentally cannot produce enough apples for the demand that they have.
“There are hundreds of thousands of growers in India farming on very, very difficult terrain with very difficult access and fundamentally growing a different variety mix to what we can offer the Indian consumer.
“So I do not see a world in which New Zealand apples would compete directly with Indian apples.”
But the work would not be without its challenges, including access to nursery stock and cold chain issues.
“Very, very old orchards. Very, very big trees that are not producing much at all.
“So there’s a real opportunity to help that shift, but the opportunity obviously will have a lot of challenges alongside.”
A bigger bite of the apple market
India was New Zealand’s fourth-largest export market for apples and pears in the year to June, worth about $100 million, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A recent Ministry for Primary Industries report showed apple exports to India reached more than 38,564 tonnes in the year to December, according to its Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries report.
But Adsett said exports would be close to 50,000 tonnes this year, mostly of royal gala, which faced the current 50% import tariff on top of the sale price.
“So a very, very difficult market to make any margin on.
“In fact, most of our product struggles to be competitive in that market, due to the nature of the other markets that they import from.”
The FTA will see new quotas for apples from year one during India’s off-season, between April and the end of August.
The first 32,500 tonnes will be subject to 25% tariffs, and the current 50% tariff will apply for volumes above that.
Adsett said exporters would likely exceed that volume next season.
India’s import quota concessions would reduce over the next six years, expanding to 45,000 tonnes at the 25% tariff.
Tariffs on pears into India will drop to 16.5% over the next decade, with no quota limit.
For kiwifruit, New Zealand exporters would face duty-free access for 6250 tonnes each year, widening to up to 15,000 tonnes by year six.
Out-of-tariff quotas will halve to 16.5%.
The FTA comes into effect on Tuesday.
The Australia-India Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement, which came into effect in December 2022, excluded provisions for apples.