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The Californian pitch on pistachio seems to have gone down well with Indian policy makers.
On Monday, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, in his Budget speech announced an import duty cut on pistachios, bringing it down to 10 per cent from the existing 30 per cent.
There's been an even bigger cut on sun-dried seedless raisins with Mr Mukherjee bringing down basic custom duty on the commodity from 100 per cent to 30 per cent.
On cranberry products and its juice-based drinks, basic custom duty has been cut to from 30 per cent to 10 per cent.
Pistachios have been high on the agenda of the US-India trade talks, figuring in bilateral talks.
With Californian growers having bumper crops, they need markets such as India to offload their branded offerings.
For instance, Californian company, Paramount Farms, has invested $5 million in India, for a roasting, packaging and processing plant in Gujarat to cater to the Indian market.
Of the nearly five million kilograms of pistachios a year that India consumes, only six lakh kg are Californian.
The bulk of our pistachios comes from Iran and Afghanistan, routed through the Dubai-based exporters of Indian origin or Pakistani traders. The big trade push from the US, is, hence, not so surprising.
By contrast, the almond story is skewed in favour of the US growers. India consumes nearly 30 million plus kg of Californian almonds.
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