SHOPIAN: The price of C-grade apple has fallen sharply due to the absence of non-local buyers, which is causing a concern among the orchardists, who say that their earnings have been hit.
According to the orchardists, traders from other states would set-up camps in villages to buy apples. They said that the load carriers from Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu province are also absent. They would throng the villages to buy fruit.
Kashmir Reader talked to many orchardists in south Kashmir about the rates of apple, who said that this year a box of apple didn’t fetch more than Rs 60, which was sold at Rs 150 to 200 last year.
“The main reason for low rates of apple is due to the absence of non-local buyers. As they didn’t come, we have no option but to sell 20 kilograms box of apple for Rs 50 to 60,” said Ishtiaq Ahmad, a local from Baskushan village in south Kashmir.
The orchardists said that earnings from selling their crop was helping them to arrange labourers and other expenses for apple picking and packing. But this year, they said, their earnings are almost nil.
“Most of the apple crop was being bought by non-local traders. But this year, due to the monopoly of locals, the rates have fallen causing us huge losses,” said Gulzar Ahmad Khan, who owns over 60 kanals of land.
The locals said that high transportation cost is another reason for the decline in apple price. They said that apple gets sold at rates equal to transportation charges, which is the reason people stay away from sending their crop to Delhi and other markets.
The orchardists added that most of their apple produce has rotten due to these reasons.
Growers from different areas of Shopian and Pulwama said that few traders from Utter Pradesh and Bihar come to Valley, “but by the end of the apple picking season, there number is less compared to the quantity of apple”.
“The uncertainty has led to heavy losses to the orchardists and I think it would be in crores,” a horticulture expert said.
He added that there are no sufficient juice factories in the valley, which could have compensated the losses of growers.

Raashid Hassan