By Clint Thompson
The trade mission to India last April went about as well as could be expected, according to Georgia pecan industry experts. But what happens next?
Justin Jones, Georgia pecan grower, chairman of industry relations for the American Pecan Council and co-owner of brand Zorro Pecans, discussed the next step in making a trade partnership with India, not just a dream, but a reality. It centers on education.
“A lot of the contacts we had were people interested in bringing some over. A lot of them are wanting to do trial consignment deals. One of the things that we’ve got to do, too, is we’ve got to figure out and help them cook it. They literally have no idea how to cook it, whether that be the processor or the general public,” Jones said. “That’s one thing we were asked is, can people come over here and show the processor how to do this? That’s something that’s going to come out of the gate as far as bringing a team back over to meet with chefs, cooks or something like that. The next step is really trying to get some in their hands. As we were meeting with people and they didn’t know what it was, once they had that first taste, then they were eating it.”
“I think one of the things we’ve got to understand is from the standpoint of we’ve heard this mentioned as another China. It could be the next China. We need to be careful this is not the next China. We don’t need to get too heavily involved because we’ve seen what happened with China when things went sour.”
Luxury Item
Jones said India consumers view pecans as a luxury item. But that still benefits Georgia producers.
“In that economy, that’s about 10%. If you crunch the numbers, that’s 1.5 billion people, it’s 150 million people of being in that category. That’s a pretty big consumer,” Jones said.