Poor grading, official apathy killing Indian apple industry

[rgiridhar]

Poor grading, official apathy killing Indian apple industry

Though state government claims to give special attention to the fruit trade in Kashmir, their prices have sharply declined, experts say, due to poor quality control.
The decline in state’s fruit trade has been caused by adulterated pesticides, poor quality control, availability of imported fruits and official apathy, experts said. Fruits from other countries have flooded the Indian markets as they are preferred for the better quality and colour. Majority of fruits come from Germany, Australian and China.

“Lack of proper grading has affected the marketability of the Kashmir apple. We will have to give proper attention to quality control to survive in the competitive market,” said Mohammad Yasin, a fruit dealer from Sopore. This is happening despite the fact that government had launched the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) couple of years ago with much fanfare. MIS was aimed to properly grade the fruits particularly apples, so that they will fetch a higher price in Indian and other markets.

“Greed of some vested interest is killing the reputation of Kashmiri apple,” he added.
On being asked what was ailing the valley’s fruit trade, Director Horticulture, Marketing and Planning, Showkat Zarger told etala’at, “Our fruit lacks the quality packing and grading which affects the market as well, there are people who are unlicensed and are working in Mandi (wholesale market).

Claiming that traders suffer because the trade is unorganised, Zargar said, “Agricultural Produce Marketing Act (APMA) has not been implemented yet, that could have made it an organized industry and in its absence traders are facing problems.” However, traders say that official apathy was also playing a role in fruit sector’s decline. They point out other deficiencies such as absence of a cold storage facility in the valley.

“There is not one cold store for the preservation of the fruit in the entire Kashmir valley,” fruit grower Mohammed Jamal Mir of Sopore said.
Horticulture is the largest sector in Kashmir both in turns of employment and annual turnover. According to an estimate every year Kashmir exports fruits worth Rs. 2500 crore to other states and countries.

[manojsinghchandel]

Dear Sir,

Two years back I was involved in organizing buyer-seller meet of fruits at Srinagar. We totally agree with you that it's the grading which leads to price fluctuation and gives low prices to farmers. At that time lot of buyers from well reputed corporates just asked for grading and change in price level. Therefore, farmers themselves should adopt grading methods based upon colour, size etc of the fruits so that they could 'nt be cheated and could get good remunerative prices for their produce.

Regds

Manoj Singh