About 30% apple crop perishes in J&K floods

The Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) floods have left apple growers and traders in the Kashmir valley high and dry. J&K is the largest grower of apples in India, covering 242,000 hectares of the country's total area under apple, which is 315,000 hectares.

As the calamity has struck at the beginning of the harvest season, it could cripple supplies across India. The valley grows a large variety of apples, harvested from July to mid-February. J&K accounts for 60 per cent of the apple grown in India, followed by Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

The harvest season in Himachal Pradesh, another important grower of Apple in India, would be over in the mid of October. The prices in whole sale market are already up by 20-30 per cent, depending on the varieties.

Normally, prices stabilise when the Kashmiri apple starts arriving in the market. This year, traders are expecting the prices to remain high as the supplies would remain restricted due to crop damage as a fallout of floods in the Kashmir valley.

Mohammad Yusuf Shah, a loader from Sopore in Kashmir, said the districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Baramulla and Sopore were badly hit by the floods and that the apple growers were facing huge losses. The exact assessment would be done by government agencies, but 25-30 per cent of crop damage is expected.

"We as traders lost truckloads of apple boxes as the consignments were on the way. After being stuck for two weeks due to road blocks, the entire stock got damaged," he added. Not all farmers are aware of crop insurance.

A Delhi-based apple trader, Kuwar Pal of Dauli Ram Kuwar Pal and Company, said compared to last year, apple prices were quoting higher. The news about the crop loss in Kashmir added to the speculation and pulled up the prices of Himachal apples by 30 per cent, compared to last year. Pal does not expect another jump in price as the price, according to him, is already quite high.

Prem Sharma, a leading Chandigarh-based trader, said an inelastic demand for apple might keep the prices higher because consumers prefer domestic apple to the imported variety.

While Indian apple is exported to Bangladesh and Nepal, a large quantity of apple is sold in the domestic market, making exports unviable, Sharma pointed out.