Lower production and Covid scare could drive Himachal apple price up to Rs 400/kg this year

After inclement weather hit the apple-growing process, Covid-19 and the lockdown have created uncertainty among growers, traders and buyers.

Representational image of an apple orchard | Photo: Commons

Shimla: Fresh apples from Himachal Pradesh are set to hit the market in a month’s time, but thanks to the Covid-19 lockdown and colder-than-usual weather during the growing season, consumers might end up paying double the price compared to last year.

The apple harvest season is in July and August, but the output this year is just about 45 to 50 per cent of last year’s bumper production of four crore boxes (each box containing 20 kg each), and growers and fruit merchants expect to find it tough to find markets or transportation to sell their produce.

“Common customers will find the apples highly expensive, maybe even a luxury. The prices could range anywhere between Rs 250 and Rs 400 per kg in the metros. How the situation develops due to coronavirus will be a key factor in changing the market dynamics,” Delhi fruit merchant Gopal Singh Thakur told ThePrint from an orchard at Kotkhai, Shimla.

The 62-year-old said he has been in the fruit trading business for the last 45 years, and can foresee a bad time for the apple crop. Thakur pointed out that plums, cherries, apricots and pears marketed from Himachal Pradesh have had no wholesale buyers this time.

“The market is dull and traders are very scared,” Thakur said.

Himachal’s apple economy

Among apple-growing regions of India, Jammu and Kashmir remains the leader with a 70 per cent market share. Himachal Pradesh is No. 2 with 21.5 per cent, but its share goes up when there’s a bumper crop, like in 2019. Other apple-growing states are Uttarakhand (6.4 per cent market share) and Arunachal Pradesh (1.6 per cent), while Sikkim, Nagaland and Kerala have also entered the business.

Himachal Pradesh’s apple economy is worth nearly Rs 4,000 crore. Nearly 30 to 35 per cent of the produce is sold at Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi, while the rest gets transported directly to wholesale markets in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Jaipur and the Northeastern states.

The early-season varieties of apples usually fetch anywhere between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,200 per 20-kg box, while some new varieties like Red Chief, Super Chief, Oregon Spur and Scarlet Spur sold for as much as Rs 3,500 per box last year.

However, the production has been hit hard this year by colder weather at the flowering stage of the growing process. The ideal temperature at that time needed to be between 16 and 24 degrees Celsius, but Shimla and adjoining areas saw temperatures ranging from 11 to 13 degrees Celsius at the time.

“The transition from winter to summer did not happen in the usual manner,” explained Dr Vijay Singh Thakur, former vice-chancellor of Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan. “This affected flowering and delayed the pollination process in the orchard. Then, hail and thunderstorms also caused damage to the crop,” he said.

Covid and lockdown impact

In areas like Jubbal, Kotkhai, Rohru, Kotgarh, Thanedar, Narkanda, Baghi and Kumarsein that produce the early-season varieties, the worry is how to reach the markets, and find bulk buyers.

“Buyers are really scared of Covid-19. Those who used to visit Himachal Pradesh ahead of the season to strike deals with orchards have dropped their travel plans. The quarantine protocols are also bit harsh in Himachal Pradesh, which is also producing a negative impact this season,” L.C. Dogra, who owns an orchard and trades in apples at Narkanda.

Himachal’s quarantine rules involve a 14-day institutional quarantine for those coming in from cities with a “high load of infected cases”, while the rest are to be in mandatory home quarantine for the same period.

The “high load” areas notified include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thane, Pune, Gurugram, Kolkata, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Indore.

Dogra asked: “How is it going to work? Who will come to buy the apples if the state government makes conditions tough? Air connectivity to Shimla is zero, and outsiders’ entry is banned.” He suggested waiving this condition for wholesale buyers and their representatives, saying they can be asked to get mandatory Covid tests done as a safety precaution.

There are other worries too, such as how the Covid-19 situation develops in other parts of the country. “We’re hearing that cases are yet to peak. The crop will rot in the orchards if situation turns grimmer in Delhi and other metros,” said Harish Chauhan, a progressive apple grower in Kotkhai.

In any case, growers feel the market dynamics are not favourable. Arhatiyas (commission agents) have run out of cash for the fruit business, and have not paid growers last year’s dues. In Shimla district alone, more than Rs 100 crore arrears are payable to growers.

Dogra called it “the most terrible situation in my 44-year career”. “I have at least Rs 6 crore still to recover from the traders whom I had sold the apples to last year. Unless they clear my dues, how I will pay other growers? I had a bank loan worth Rs 4 crore, and I’m paying an interest of Rs 4 lakh every month,” he said.

Jayant Negi, cluster head of SYETA Fruitica, a Bengaluru-based company, admitted: “The coronavirus has cast a shadow on the apple procurement/wholesale buying. We will be handling only limited business. The large volume business is really in great uncertainty.”

Other companies like Big Basket, Agri-fresh, Adani Fresh and Dev Bhoomi are tapping the growers for farm-gate buying of the apples — a process in which the apples are procured physically from the respective orchards.

Shortage of labour

Another major issue this year is the acute shortage of labour. Workers from Nepal, who are experts in handling apple operations, have not returned from their country. The Nepali labourers handle harvesting, grading and packaging, as well as loading and unloading.

These workers normally arrive in April and return in October-November after the apple cultivation season. Those who were already in Himachal for other jobs also left during the lockdown. Orchard owners say the labourers want to come back, but restrictions have left them stranded in Nepal.

“I deposited an advance of Rs 50,000 in their accounts some days back, hoping that they will reach before the harvest season. I am just keeping my fingers crossed, even though the state government has promised to bring them for the apple season,” said Joginder Chauhan, a grower in Kotkhai.

Help from Himachal authorities

In this uncertain atmosphere, teams formed by the Himachal Pradesh government are trying to reach out to the farmers to assure them of help and asking them not to panic or believe in speculations.

“It’s true the conditions are not normal. The crop being low is rather a good thing as it will be manageable,” said M.M. Sharma, Himachal’s Director of Horticulture.

“The HPMC (Horticulture Produce Marketing & Processing Corporation) is finalising plans for procurement at its collection centres. The firms manufacturing packing materials will be empanelled and asked to supply cartons in time. The controlled-atmosphere stores (for conserving fruits and vegetables) will also be lined up for storage if transportation is disrupted, or the markets are hit,” Sharma said.

Debasweta Banik, IAS officer and managing director of the HPMC, also tried to dispel the fears. “We are in constant touch with the companies supplying packing materials, plus district administrations have worked on arranging a sufficient number of trucks. Other basic logistics are also being worked out. Once things are lined up, I believe the apple season will progress smoothly, as we also have CA stores and collection centres,” she said.

Silver lining

However, there is silver lining that has emerged due to the pandemic — foreign apples from China, the US, New Zealand, Italy, Australia and the UK are not expected to arrive in time to compete with local varieties.

In recent times, foreign apples have been the biggest competitor for Indian varieties, and Himachal Pradesh has been asking the central government to raise the import duty to 100 per cent to counter the influx.