Import of 81 thousand tonnes of almonds in April-July

18-Oct-2024 04:50 PM

New Delhi. A huge increase is being seen in the import of almonds during the current financial year as compared to last year.

According to the available data, during the first four months of the current financial year i.e. April-July 2024, the import of almonds in the country increased to 81,262 tonnes,

which was much higher than the import of 69,432 tonnes during the same months last year. Compared to last year, during the current year, the import of almonds increased from 17,870 tonnes to 21,240 tonnes in April,

increased from 16,543 tonnes to 20,536 tonnes in June and jumped from 12,586 tonnes to 22,304 tonnes in July, while in May the import declined from 22,033 tonnes to 17,182 tonnes.

During the entire period (April-March) of the financial year 2023-24, a total of about 2.60 lakh tonnes of almonds were imported in the country,

whereas earlier 2.48 lakh tonnes were imported in 2022-23 and 2.08 lakh tonnes in 2021-22. During the financial year 2023-24, 16,363 tonnes were imported in August, 17,902 tonnes in September, 23,180 tonnes in October, 31,355 tonnes in November,

36,175 tonnes in December 2023, 22,611 tonnes in January 2024, 24,253 tonnes in February and 18,690 tonnes in March 2024.

Almonds are imported from many other countries including America (California). After the change in the duty structure on American almonds, its import increased drastically.

It is worth noting that India experiences intense heat from April to July when no important festivals are celebrated.

Despite this, there was a huge increase of 11,830 tonnes in the import of this important dry fruit. The festival season formally begins from August and continues more or less till the first week of November.

After that comes the season of weddings and auspicious festivals in which the demand and consumption of almonds increases. It appears from this that heavy import of almonds continued in India even after July.