Apple juice duty eliminated

Saturday, December 3, 2011

by SUSAN MANN

Eliminating the duty on apple juice concentrate probably won’t affect growers but farmers would have preferred leaving it in place, says a spokesman for the Ontario Apple Growers.

Chair Brian Gilroy says the grower group was asked its opinion and it told government officials “the duty should remain to help keep the costs up.”

Gilroy says processors could apply to get their duty back. That’s what growers hoped would happen “and we would have supported that.”

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Nov. 27 the elimination of tariffs on 70 items including apple juice concentrate.

Currently Ontario juice apples are selling at $2.50 to $2.60 a bushel, far lower than other commodities, such as soybeans, wheat or corn.

A niche market for hand-picked juice apples, however, is fairly strong.  Gilroy says hand picked juice apples sell for $4.50 a bushel. That price, however, has increased only marginally in the 25 years Gilroy has been involved in the industry.

One thing growers are doing is planting new varieties of apples with an overall goal of reducing the percentage of juice apples.

The apple concentrate duty was installed 12 to15 years ago when China was dumping concentrate into the United States, which responded by installing a duty. Then the U.S. removed its duty but Canada didn’t, Gilroy says.

The Food Processors of Canada, which represents Canadian food manufacturers, supports the move. President Christopher Kyte says in a press release the tariff cut will help lower ingredient costs. “It levels the playing field so that Canadian processors can better compete against imported finished product.”

Kyte says there won’t be any impact on apple growers as processors will continue using high quality Canadian apples to make single strength juice, applesauce and other specialty products.  BF