Kinnow from Punjab wows southern, eastern markets

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 2

Notwithstanding the resource constraint, small and marginal kinnow farmers of Punjab are accessing southern and eastern markets of the country and getting premium for their produce, compared to the local market.

Coming to the aid of the farmers, Punjab Agro has tied up with NeML (NCDEX e-Markets Limited), an NCDEX group company.

NeML and Punjab Agro have identified buyers and wholesalers in all major destination markets through whom the kinnow shall be sold. Punjab Agro facilitates the farmers by providing sorting, grading, waxing and transportation of the fruit to the destined station, while NeML is offering software solution and other marketing facilities, including fair price discovery and trade to the farmers.

Already the state farmers have sent around 1,000 tonnes of the fruit to different destination such as Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Siliguri and Guwahati. The export to other cities started in mid-December. Farmers are getting a premium of Rs 4-6 per kg compared to the local market.

According to horticulturists, kinnow farmers of Punjab mostly sell their produce to pre-harvest contractors or in local mandis through various intermediaries, and rarely receive the fair price. They are forced to sell locally because they don’t have access to various markets. Besides that, the biggest risk for them is not getting payment back if they try to sell the produce to distant markets. There is also lack of transparency in sales.

“The core idea of the kinnow e-market is to make the small and marginal kinnow farmers’ lives easier and to enable them to market their own produce to distant markets. The farmer doesn’t have to worry about where to pack or which party to select for selling kinnow. They simply have to get themselves registered with the kinnow e-market and Punjab Agro with NeML’ s team shall take care of processing, shipping and sales and receiving back the payment on behalf of farmer.”

Punjab Agri Export Corporation Ltd (PAGREXO) Assistant General Manager Ranbir Singh said. All costs incurred for marketing are deducted and net payment is transferred directly to farmers’ account.

Officials added that kinnow farmers can get themselves registered on FFresh e-market through Punjab Agro. All farmers will get a mobile application on which they will get access to market information of various destination markets on kinnow prices. Farmers will take a call through the application whether they want to sell produce on a fixed price or on consignment sales. Once the seller and buyer accept the lot, rate and other terms and conditions, the trade will get matched. It shall also get recorded into the system and transportation will be arranged by the Punjab Agro and NeML representative locally through identified transporters in association with the farmer.

E- market advantages 

• Better realisation
• No investment in marketing infrastructure
• Less worried about the payments
• Complete transparency in the trade

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