The executives stated that nevertheless, the Finance Minister has cut down the customs duties across multiple categories, the prices of imported foods that are protein-rich, sweets and fruits are set to reduce but marginally.
Meghana Narayan, the co-founder of Slurrp Farm, a healthy natural food maker, stated that the decline of duties is probable to positively affect consumer prices in the mid to long term. Currently, the prices will resume along with the market.
Duties on sweet biscuits, wafers, and waffles have reduced from 30% to 45%, and pet food has come down to 20% from 30%. Import duties on pistachios, cashew nuts, and soft dates have been reduced from 30% to 10%, 2.5%, and 20 % respectively.
Imported duties on fruits like lime, lemon, grapes, oranges, fresh pears, and quinces have reduced to 30% from 40%. Duties on spices both pepper and cloves have declined from 70% to 35%.
Amit Dutta, Chief Executive of Le Marche Retail, premium foods retailer, mentioned that the cut down would have to be distributed by importers in any case, which will lead to a trickle-down effect, considering most retailers do not import directly.
The reduction in duties is not impacted on a lot of other high-selling products since general inflation pressures have an impact on them. Dutta also said that these are an unimportant portion of the overall commodities to create a tangible business impact.
Mayank Shah, senior category head of Parle Products, also shared that as the element of imported ingredients in packaged foods is very little, the impact on prices would be marginal.
The executives mentioned that considering the local sourcing helps in keeping prices in control, the imports have been declining year on year.
Saurabh Saith, Chief Executive of Orion India which makes confectionery brand Choco-Pie, stated that the decline in import duty is doubtful to have a huge impact, considering the food companies in India source most of the raw materials from local sellers, and the ingredients that may be imported are very little.
Prashant Parameswaran, Managing Director of Tata Consumer Soulfull, said that the sector tied in with the ‘International Year of Millets’ had a big advantage by promoting domestic and international consumption of millets.
They would like to expand this category by making millets more dominant via the Tata Soulfull brand and making them accessible to consumers in modern and convenient formats.
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