Heatwave delights murabba, sharbat sellers of Amritsar

Neeraj Bagga

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Amritsar, June 8

Owing to the prolonged and intensive heatwave sweeping across the state, there has been a spike in the sale of traditional summer gourmet delights such as murabba and sharbat this season.

The phenomenal rise in mercury has caused a rise in the demand of sweet syrupy formulation of sharbat such as brahmi badam, tripti, bazuri, sandal, kaashni, khas and zeera. A majority of these are formed using herbs brought from Himalayas. Many of these are also prepared from fruits such as falsa, shahtut and flowers such as rose, kevda and others.

Sunny Bhandari, a food processing unit’s operator, said the demand for locally-prepared sharbat and murabba was emanating from across the country. He said the upward demand was recorded after two years of Covid-battered seasons. He said the sale of these seasonal items was limited to summer only.

The holy city is a hub for achar (pickles) and murabba (preserve) market due to its high quality water. There are around 40 food processing units rolling out sharbat and murabba in the district which have an annual turnover of roughly Rs 100 crore.

Rakesh Thukral, president of the Achar Murabba Association, said achar and murabba fall under the basic diets of common people. Both of them originated in Iran and over the years, locals learnt the art of preparing them. A majority of the work was done manually. So it created a number of jobs.

After procuring locally produced products, Mumbai, Delhi and Panipat-based exporters export these to foreign countries where Indians are residing in a large numbers.

However, the Centre and state governments together charge 19 per cent tax on the food processing industry. The Centre imposes 12 per cent GST and the Mandi Board, a unit under the state government, charges seven per cent tax.

Sale of traditional summer gourmet zooms

The phenomenal rise in mercury has caused a rise in the demand of sweet syrupy formulation of sharbat such as brahmi badam, tripti, bazuri, sandal, kaashni, khas and zeera.

The holy city is a hub of achar (pickles) and murabba (preserve) market due to its high quality water. There are around 40 food processing units rolling out sharbat and murabba in the district which have an annual turnover of roughly Rs 100 crore