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Danielle Adsett: New Zealand Apples and Pears CEO on the India Free Trade Agreement coming into effect · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's time to celebrate because the India FTA kicks in
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: from today. 57% of our exports to India will now
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: be tariff free. As part of this deal, we're helping
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Indian fruit growers better their production. So that's part of it.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And so Danielle Adset is the CEO of New Zealand
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Apples and Pears. It's plural, not apple and pear like
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I said before. She's just got back from a trip
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to India and joins me now. Good morning to you, Danielle.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Kia ora, good morning.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: How excited are you?
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, very excited, very excited. This is a day we've
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: been waiting for for a while, and we're glad it's here,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and we look forward to the next export season to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: take full advantage of it.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: How can you do that, and what sort of advantage
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: can we take?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: So the tariff reduction that we have on apples is
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the first in the world. So we will be entering
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: the market with a 50% reduction in tariff, so we
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: will be now paying 25% tariff, and that will give
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: us some competitive advantage, particularly over our competition out of
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: South Africa, out of the US, and those other markets
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: that are exporting to India.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: And how keen are India on our apples? I mean,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: is apples something they really like? Are they big numbers
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: or what?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, you've got two things going on. Yes, apples are
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: well liked by Indian consumers, but you've also got a
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: 1.4 billion people, right? So So the demand is there.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: But not only that, we're not comparing apples with apples.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: New Zealand does grow the best apples in the world.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: And the growing middle class and wealthy society want our
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: apples because they taste good, they can be trusted, they're safe.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Not a lot of people can offer that in the
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: same way we do.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Want to put a number on what this might mean
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to us?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: It's hard to tell because we think the market might
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: shift a bit in terms of you know, the market
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: three years ago versus the market now. But if you
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: apply the, you know, the 50% tariff savings, we're talking
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: about millions of dollars back to New Zealand.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Okay. So you went to India. What did you learn there?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So that was my fourth trip to India in the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: last 12 months. Great country, really enjoyed getting up into
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the growing regions and talking with growers. We were there
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to really start to frame out how we can deliver
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: technical support in the most effective way possible. that works
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: for them and works for the Indian condition. So we're
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: excited to get started.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Very good. But at the same time, you have to
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: help their farmers, teach them how to grow apples, basically,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: which is kind of, well, it would be great if
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: we didn't have to do that. How do you feel
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: about that?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Look, we offered that up, right? That idea came from
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: our industry. We're not worried about competing with Indian farmers.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: India already grows 2.5 million tonnes of apples every year.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Last year, last export season, we supplied 50,000 tonnes. We're
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: not competing with India. We're competing with Turkey. We're competing
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: with Afghanistan, Poland, the US, South Africa. So for us,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: building on decades where we've already supported Indian farmers to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: grow better in their conditions, feels like a natural progression
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: for us. So we're excited to be involved.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That is good. And should all New Zealanders be excited
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: about this India FTA? I mean, I think a lot
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: of people sit there and go, oh, yeah, whatever, meh,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing. But is this something that,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: as a nation today, we should be celebrating? Absolutely.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: And I think sometimes the tangible outcomes from these kind
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: of agreements take a while to flow through. You know,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: we see that the China FTA really– transform, particularly for export,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: our sector in terms of opportunity. So I think it
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: is something to be excited about. It might just take
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a while for general public to, I suppose, really understand
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the nuts and bolts and what it means for New
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Zealand as a whole.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Well, Danielle, I'm excited. I would like you to go
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: into the India market and I'd like you to dominate it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much because New Zealand makes the very
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: best apples and we all know this. So good luck
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: going forward and I thank you so much for your
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: time today. Danielle Adsett, From New Zealand, apples and pears.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:16
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• 4:20
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