Cold storage business down by 40% this year in Kashmir

Cold storage business down by 40% this year in Kashmir

Shopian: Factors such as low crop yield, fungal diseases damaging the fruit, and increase in number of new units have together led to the cold storage business in Kashmir being down by 40 percent this year.
Cold storage owners say that the monthly cold storage charges have also declined by 10 rupees per box.
The low yield of apple and other fruits this year is among the reasons why less of them have been stored in the cold storages. Owners say that 40 percent of the storage space is empty this year.
Kashmir this year produced about 15 lakh metric tonnes of apple which according to estimates is 30 percent less than last year when Kashmir produced 23 lakh metric tonnes of apple.
Izhan Javid, chief executive officer of a cold storage chain in the valley, told Kashmir Reader that with an increase in number of storage units and decline in production, business has been badly hit this year.
“Due to less demand, the monthly charges for cold storage also declined by 40 percent. Earlier the monthly rates used to be around Rs 30 but now it has declined to about Rs 20,” he said.
To run a cold storage, it costs owners around Rs 3 crore every year, which includes electricity bills, employee salaries, cost of equipment, and maintenance charges.
According to Mukhtar Ahmad, a cold storage owner, the amount of fruit stored this year would not provide for the expenses they have to meet on electricity, labour, machinery and technical staff.
Kashmir units have the capacity to store two lakh metric tonnes of apple in about 30 cold storage units that are mostly based in districts Pulwama and Shopian.
Ishtiaq Ahmad Wani, an apple grower, told Kashmir Reader that one reason why apples have not been kept in cold stores this year is also because of the losses sustained by doing so last year.
“When we had to send the fruit outside, the highway was closed. Our fruit was spoiled lying in the stores. So this year we opted to sell it rather than storing it,” Wani said.
Parvaiz Ahmad Bhat, another orchardist, said that last year he stored a thousand apple boxes but only a hundred this year.
“As you know, most of the produce was affected by fungal scab and hailstorms. It was not in a condition to be stored,” Bhat said.
Other growers also said that due to the decline in produce and widespread outbreak of diseases, there was little fruit to be stored.
According to the government’s tentative figures, about 30 percent of apple crop was affected by scab this year, though growers say the figure is around 50 percent.
The Kashmir horticulture sector is spread over 3.4 lakh hectares of land among which apple holds half of the area.

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