How India Will Let In New Zealand Apples, Kiwifruit and Manuka Honey: Quotas and Price Floors Under the FTA
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the Commerce Ministry office that runs India's import and export rules, issued Public Notice No. 33/2026-27 on 17 October 2026. It sets out how importers can bring in four sensitive New Zealand products at low duty under the India-New Zealand FTA: apples, kiwifruit, albumins (egg and milk proteins used in food processing) and Manuka honey.
These items get low duty only within a fixed yearly quantity, called a tariff-rate quota (TRQ). Above the quota, the normal, higher duty applies.
Apples: 25% duty within quota, only if the CIF price is at least US$1.25 per kg. No quota in Year 1, then 35,000 tonnes in Year 2, rising to 45,000 tonnes from Year 6. Imports allowed only from 1 April to 31 August.
Kiwifruit: zero duty within quota, only if the CIF price is at least US$1.80 per kg. No quota in Year 1, then 8,000 tonnes, rising to 15,000 tonnes from Year 6. Window: 1 April to 15 October.
Albumins: 11% duty within a quota of 200 tonnes in Year 1, rising to 3,000 tonnes from Year 5, all year round. Manuka honey (certified by New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries): quota of 40 tonnes in Year 1 and 200 tonnes from Year 2, for honey priced between US$20 and US$30 per kg.
New Zealand will give export certificates to its exporters naming the Indian importer. The Indian importer then applies on the DGFT portal. Customs subtracts each shipment from the quota electronically, and unused quota lapses at the end of the year. Year 1 runs only from 20 October to 31 December 2026, which is why apples and kiwifruit (whose import windows are already over) get no quota in Year 1.
Tariff-Rate Quota (TRQ) Mechanism
A tariff-rate quota, or TRQ, is a two-level import tax. A country lets a fixed quantity of a product come in at a low tax (the in-quota rate), and anything beyond that quantity pays a much higher tax (the out-of-quota rate). It is a middle path between fully opening a market and fully closing it. TRQs were made common by the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture (1995), when countries had to convert their old import bans and quotas into tariffs.
Every one of the four New Zealand products is handled through a TRQ. This lets India honour its FTA promise of market access while keeping a hard cap on how much enters at low duty, protecting apple growers in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand, and kiwifruit growers in Arunachal Pradesh and other hill states.
Minimum Import Price (MIP): A Price Floor for Imports
A Minimum Import Price, or MIP, is a floor price set by the government for an imported product. If a shipment's declared price is below this floor, it cannot come into the country (or cannot get a tax benefit). Think of it like a shopkeeper who says, "I will not stock any product that is sold to me below ₹50." The aim is to stop very cheap imports from crashing the prices that local farmers and factories get.
The FTA quotas for New Zealand apples and kiwifruit come with built-in price floors. Only shipments at or above US$1.25 per kg (apples) and US$1.80 per kg (kiwifruit) get the low quota duty. This stops cheap fruit from undercutting Indian growers, even inside a free trade deal.
Sensitive Sector Protection in Trade Agreements
When two countries sign a trade deal, they do not cut taxes on every product. Each keeps a list of sensitive products where it does not cut import taxes at all (an exclusion list), or cuts them only slowly or partly. These are usually products where millions of small producers could be hurt by cheap imports, such as dairy and many farm goods in India.
The DGFT notice is the working end of India's sensitive-sector strategy in the New Zealand deal. It gives limited, controlled entry to products New Zealand cares about, without exposing Indian apple, kiwi and honey producers to an open flood of imports.
- DGFT Public Notice No. 33/2026-27, dated 17 October 2026, effective 20 October 2026
- Customs Notification No. 32/2026-Customs, dated 16 October 2026, gives the concessional duties
- Apples (HS 0808.10.00): 25% in-quota duty; CIF ≥ US$1.25/kg; quota nil (Y1), 35,000 t (Y2) rising to 45,000 t (Y6 onward); window 1 April to 31 August
- Kiwifruit (HS 0810.50.00): 0% in-quota duty; CIF ≥ US$1.80/kg; nil (Y1), 8,000 t (Y2) rising to 15,000 t (Y6 onward); window 1 April to 15 October
- Albumins (HS 3502): 11% in-quota duty; 200 t (Y1) rising to 3,000 t (Y5 onward); all year
- Manuka honey: 40 t (Y1), 200 t (Y2 onward); CIF band US$20 to below US$30/kg; out-of-quota duty cut from 66% to 16.5% over five years
- Year 1 = 20 October to 31 December 2026; later quota years follow the calendar year; unused quota lapses
- Process: New Zealand export certificate → Indian importer applies on DGFT portal → quantity debited in customs system (ICES)