Australian farmers will now be able to sell into the enormous Indian market following the signing of a market access agreement.

Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said he was thrilled Australia’s walnut growers now had access to India and its 1.4 billion people.

“Many Australians don’t realise a scientific market access agreement is often the hardest part of getting access to a new market,” Minister Littleproud said.

“Getting scientists from two countries to agree on how to stop any threat of diseases or pests being exported from one country to another can be very difficult.

“We’ve managed to win agreement with our Indian friends and this means our walnut growers can export their clean, green product to India.

“We spoke to industry through the Hort Innovation Australia prioritisation process and industry nominated walnut market access as a key priority.

“Since then our agriculture counsellor in India has worked with the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the walnut industry to get this access.

“Agricultural counsellors win trade outcomes and that is why we boosted the number of counsellors we have in key markets in the 2017-18 budget.

“Around 1.4 billion people live in India – more than 50 times the number of people in Australia – so it’s a huge market we’ve accessed for our walnut growers.

“India is already a large export market for Australian almonds and there is huge potential for our other nuts to be exported there also.”

We exported over $22.5 million worth of walnuts around the world in 2017-18.

Trade can formally commence once the import conditions are officially gazetted by India. In the interim, 10 trial shipments of walnuts can be sent to India.