Lack of demand worries corrugated box industry

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, July 10

Lack of demand for packaging material from orchardists is giving anxious moments to the corrugated box manufacturing industry.

After suffering from lack of demand due to the lockdown, the manufacturers were hopeful of doing some business in the apple season. “There are 250-odd corrugated box manufacturing units in Himachal and they have received orders for producing about one lakh boxes as against the demand of 10 lakh to 15 lakh boxes during this period of the year,” said Surinder Jain, president, HP Corrugated Box Manufacturers Association, who runs a food-packaging unit in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh (BBN) hub.

He said the association has been pursuing this issue with the state government since April so that arrangements for marketing and packaging of apple could be made but not much has been done. The apple harvesting season, which has just begun, generally lasts till early September.

In a bid to lure orchardists, the association has also reduced the rate of boxes to about Rs 42 to Rs 44 per box from last year’s price of Rs 48 to Rs 50 per box.

Sending staff to apple-growing belt to take orders failed to yield the desired results. Even wholesale arhtias, who make boxes available to the growers and generally come from the plains to buy apples in Himachal, have not come this year, said another investor.

“States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, Delhi, Gujarat, etc, which were among the major consumers of apples, were grappling with a large number of Covid cases. Lack of demand from these states has, therefore, dissuaded the arhtias from coming forward to buy apples,” said Govind Thakur, an apple grower from Kotgarh in Shimla district. Lack of exports, non-operation of hotels and lack of marriages had further added to the woes, he added.

About 4 crore apple boxes of about 20 kg each were used in the state if the production was good. With adverse weather like hailstones and disease striking the apple belt, the apple production was slated to be lesser this year, said Thakur.