Chavda Law Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's India Channel. Subscribe here for monthly India newsletters.
Georgia is renewing a push to introduce the humble pecan to a potentially fertile market — India.
There’s just one problem: a 36 percent tariff on imports that makes the tree nut cost prohibitive versus competitors like almonds and pistachios, which face only a 10 percent levy.
R.G. Lamar, head of the Georgia Pecan Commission and the proprietor of a 2,000-acre pecan orchard in the state, traveled to the country in 2009 to investigate the market. Pecans were well-received, with feedback from taste tests showing that consumers saw it as a slightly sweeter version of the walnut, which they know very well.
In a country filled with vegetarians and a growing diabetic population, pecans could fill an important niche, providing ample protein with relatively low carbohydrate values and high levels of antioxidants, Mr. Lamar said.
“Vegetarians are always looking for plant-based sources of proteins, and there are very few, or at least a very limited number of categories food that you can get plant-based protein from, nuts being one of the biggest sources,” he said during a Georgia-Indo American Chamber of Commerce webinar on the state’s exports to India, which focused heavily on the agricultural sector.
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, also on the call along with his international trade team, said the state has had some supply hurdles due to Hurricane Michael a few years ago, but it is ready to meet any growth in demand from India.
“We still expect to lead the nation there for generations to come,” Mr. Black said during the webinar.
Watch the full GIACC webinar:
Mr. Black has met recently with Indian Consul General Swati Kulkarni to renew an effort to open the Indian market and lobby the government for the removal of the tariff; the commissioner also sat at the head table with Indian Ambassador Taranjit Sandhu at a luncheon in Buckhead two weeks ago.
From the perspective of Mr. Lamar, who also serves as president of candy and gift company Stuckey’s Corp., reducing the tariff to parity with other nut competitors would be a “win-win.”
“I’m convinced without a shadow of a doubt pecans, if they were affordable and available in India, would be a runaway success as a product,” he said, adding that the tariff does not seem to be protecting any domestic industry, since local cultivation in India is limited. The pecans he did see in the country were in stored in unsealed jars that made them appear oily and darkened in the warm, wet climate.
Mr. Lamar urged India to choose suppliers that could not only hermetically seal the nuts in packaging, but also freeze or at least refrigerate them to preserve freshness.
“You can present it as a concession to our side,” he said of lowering the tariff, “but in reality I think it’s a win-win for all of us.”
Lobbying for action on the pecan tariff is nothing new. When President Trump was in office, Georgia’s congressional leaders sent letters urging the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to bring up the crop in negotiations on a mini-trade deal that ended up fizzling out.
But India has been growing closer to the U.S. in view of China’s growing aggression, and the countries are making much of the potential to translate their shared values into greater economic partnership.
In response to an audience question about agricultural tariffs, Ms. Kulkarni said action was being considered.
“We are currently exploring that possibility and it’s part of the overarching trade patterns. It’s on the table, and both those concerned authorities in the U.S. and in India are very much seized with that matter, and hopefully soon we will have wonderful news on that.”
Pecans are Georgia’s 10th largest agricultural commodity by value at $263.4 million annually.