India warned about mangoes, says European Union

Mumbai: The European Union Ambassador to India, Dr Joao Cravinho said that the EU had warned the government and the mango exporters in 2013 regarding their inaction on the issue of  fruit flies. They had alerted the authorities about fruit flies way back in 2010 when an EU team came to India to inspect the process of  packaging mangoes for exports. He said “fruit flies are not indigenous to Europe and could change ecological life there.”

The 2010 alert was followed by a warning in 2012 and  a follow-up inspection in 2013.  It was found that nothing had changed despite the warnings to put in place a global mechanism. In February this year a committee submitted its report to the EU members and it was decided 28:0 (all the member countries) to impose a ban on import of mangoes from India, he said.

Dr Cravinho was speaking at an interactive session in Mumbai organised by the All India Association of Industries and was asked about the EU mango ban among other things. He felt it does not help to get excited on this issue as mango exports constituted just 8.9 million euros out of total Indian exports to the EU of 40 billion euro. Dr Cravinho said that since India was poised for a new government after the elections he had made a survey of what Euro-pean companies in India expected from the next government.

He said they wanted a signal from the government that it was open to attracting business and that there would not be retrospective imposition of taxes. European businessmen were ready to transfer technology but they wanted the cap of 26 per cent shareholding in joint ventures to be raised. “A higher level of investment would make them more enthusiastic,” he said.