Shimla: Arrival sluggish, Adani stores procure apple from mandis

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, September 7

Following sluggish arrival of apple at its CA stores, Adani Agri Fresh has been forced to procure the fruit from mandis to meet its storage and retail targets. Normally, the company procures apple at its three CA stores in the state, having a capacity of 25,000 tonne.

“We are procuring from the mandis this time as the overall crop is much less than normal. As a result, growers are not bringing enough produce to our CA stores,” said an official from Adani Agri Fresh.

Meanwhile, Sanyukt Kisan Manch (SKM) is attributing the slow arrival at the stores to their call to boycott Adani Agri Fresh. “

Adani kept reducing its procurement prices consistently last year, resulting in losses to growers. This year, too, its initial rates were much less than the prevailing market rates. So, the SKM and other apple organisations gave a call to boycott Adani Agri Fresh. Given the reduced arrival, the boycott call seems to be having an impact,” said Harish Chauhan, SKM convener.

Adani Agri Fresh procures and stores over 20,000 MT apple in August-September every season and sells it after the running season is over at higher rates. Some fruit is sold in retail during the running season. This time, however, the arrival of fruit at their stores is much less than normal. Incidentally, the company had to stop procurement repeatedly last year due to heavy arrival of the fruit at their stores.

“We have procured around 4,500 MT ton fruit so far. A part of this produce has been procured from mandis like Panchkula, Parala and JCO Lafhughati,” the official said. He further said that 80 per cent of the total produce the company procures comes from its fixed client base.

“These growers have been giving us fruit for the past many years. This time the crop of majority of our regular customers has been destroyed by bad weather. That’s the reason why the arrival is less at our stores,” the official said.

Adani Agri Fresh started off with a price of Rs 95 per kg for premium apple and has increased it twice. At the moment, it’s procuring premium apple at Rs 110 per kg, the highest rate it has ever offered.