Apple market sees price crash, Himachal growers worried

The apple market has crashed merely 15 to 20 days after the season started. Normally, the growers get quite high prices at this time of the harvest period, but the situation is quite different this time around. “The market is really bad. A majority of the growers are struggling to recover their costs, especially small farmers are taking a massive hit,” said Suresh Panjta, a progressive growers of Rohru.

Commission agents agree that the market has taken a substantial dip and blame the poor quality of the fruit for the crash. “Most of the fruit lacks proper colour and size. It’s mainly due to fungal diseases, which have been quite rampant this season. It has caused premature leaf fall, due to which the fruit lacks both size and colour,” said Pratap Chauhan, president of the Arhtiya Association at the Bhattakuffer Fruit Mandi. “As leaves are falling, the growers are plucking unripe fruit and sending it to the market,” he added.

Chauhan also blamed the delay in the opening of collection centres under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for the price crash. “As there has been a considerable delay in opening these centres this time, the growers are sending their culled apple to mandis. This, too, has bought down prices,” he said.

Yet another reason that pulled down the prices is the higher than normal production in lower elevations of the state. Meanwhile, Panjta said that due to rampant diseases this season, the quality of the produce had gone down. “There’s a lack of awareness among the growers about what pesticide they need to use to control the diseases attacking their plants. The university and the Department of Horticulture need to figure out how the growers get the right information at the right time,” he added.

Sohan Thakur, president of the Seb Utpadak Sangh, said some quality-related issues were there but the commission agents and the loaders make it look bigger. “There’s a nexus in the market that looks to exploit the growers at every opportunity,” he alleged.