First shipment of Japanese apples reaches India; after a wait of 10 years

NEW DELHI: Finally, after the decade-long marathon negotiations between Indian and Japanese government went through successfully, the eye-catching light reddish/green and big-sized Japanese apples have arrived in India.

A trial shipment of apples from Aomori – the northernmost prefecture (state) of Japan, the mecca of apple growers, reached New Delhi recently.

This news holds significance as India that is one of the major consumers of apple in the world largely depends upon apple imports from the USA after the Indian government banned apples from China sometime back. Earlier USA and China together would meet about 80% of the apple demand in India that imports more than 22 times the apples it produces.

As Jammu & Kashmir is known for producing quality apples in India, Aomori prefecture produces more than half of the total Japanese apple production in Japan and is best known for huge apple orchards here. Aomori grows more than 50 million tons of apples a year.

Recently a select group of ‘fortunate’ people including diplomats and those associated with the food & beverage industry could lay their hands on the awfully sweet, juicy Japanese apples with crispy texture at the residence of Satoshi Suzuki, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan in New Delhi.

And soon, the fruit lovers in India will be able to enjoy people as commercial shipments from Japan touch the Indian soil.

“We have identified and appointed our importer in India that will start bringing apple shipments from Aomori, and these apples will reach New Delhi and other parts of the country in some time soon,” Hideo Obori, Senior Managing Director, Aomori Trading Co. Ltd., the company that has brought the first shipment of Aomori apples to India, told Asian Community News (ACN) Network.

For Japan that has Taiwan and Hong Kong as the major markets so far, exports to India will become very crucial as this South Asia nation is one of the biggest apple consumer countries in the world.

Japan and India agreed on allowing trial shipment of Japanese apples into India in December 2019 only.

An Evening with Japanese Food 2020:

The people were made to taste apples at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on February 4 when it hosted a Japanese Food promotion event, “An Evening with Japanese Food 2020” at ambassador’s residence.

The Embassy of Japan in India continuously works to raise awareness of Japanese food and beverages like Sake in India, and regularly carries out promotional such events.

This time, the embassy invited Japanese Cuisine Goodwill Ambassador, Chef Ogawa Hirotoshi, as a special guest from Japan. He prepared sushi, using fresh fish imported from Japan, made possible by utilizing the sanitary certificate for fish products agreed in 2018 between Japan and India.

Also, the Indian celebrity chef, MasterChef, Chef Pankaj Bhadouria who visited Japan in January this year on the invitation of the Japanese Government, and prepared some dishes inspired by Japanese cuisine, including apple salad using Japanese apples.

In addition, recently, Japanese restaurant chains have started coming into India. Exclusively for this event, Japanese curry restaurant, “Coco Ichibanya”, and Japanese BBQ restaurant, “Pepper Lunch”, served food for the first time in India.