10 cold stores approved for Kinnaur

The state’s Department of Horticulture has approved 10 cold stores in Kinnaur district under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) of the Central Government. “People applying for cold stores under the MIDH scheme get 50 per cent subsidy. These stores have a capacity of 10 MT and can store 500 apple boxes,” said Secretary (Horticulture) C Paulrasu.

There are many Controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores in the apple belt but fruit growers barely use these facilities, which have huge chambers. Many small growers need to pool their produce to fill one chamber. Due to little interest shown by the growers in using CA stores, the Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) has decided to rent these to private players.

In smaller cold stores, one or two farmers can store their produce and are hence more suitable for them. “It’s not possible to reduce the chamber size of CA stores much. For the growers, who are not able to use CA stores, opting for smaller and affordable facilities is a good option,” said the Secretary (Horticulture).

The drawback of the cold stores as compared to CA stores is that it can’t keep the produce fresh for as long as the latter do. While the growers can keep their produce in CA stores for six months, the produce in cold stores can be kept fresh for around three months. “Though cold stores can’t keep the produce fresh for as long as the CA stores can do, it will still be useful for the growers, who can hold back their produce when there’s glut in the market and the prices have crashed,” said an apple grower.