Srinagar: Behind his black face mask, Riyaz is wearing a smile, apparent from his moist eyes as he comes out of the Shopian fruit mandi with a cheque in his hand. He stares at the cheque in disbelief.
He has redialled a number on his broken android phone; it is his wife’s number.
He wastes no time in sharing the good news with his spouse. “I sold the apple produce at a very good price. Thank god, I sold a box at Rs 925,” he tells her in almost a single breath.
Apparently feeling relaxed, Riyaz looks at the cheque again as his smile shone brighter. He heaves a sigh of relief and murmured a prayer.
A southern Shopian district resident, Riyaz has been struggling to get a fairly good selling price for his apple produce for nearly a decade.
“In 2012, I sold Grade A apples at Rs 910 per box. The second-best rate for the top-quality apples was Rs 900 in 2016,” he recalls vividly.
Over the years, he sold Grade A apples at Rs 910, Rs 870, Rs 790, Rs 710, Rs 900, Rs 750, Rs 715, Rs 790 in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“This time around, I am relatively convinced with the selling price for top-quality apples only, when I compare it with the prices during the past eight years,” adds Riyaz.
This is the story of almost every fruit grower in Kashmir.
Much to the dismay of Kashmir fruit growers, the world-famous Kashmiri apples and one of the mainstays of Kashmir’s economy have not fetched a good market price since 2012. In fact, the rates have remained constant, and on some occasions, even declined.
Apple growers in Kashmir loading produce onto trucks. Photo: Rouf Fida.
Only this year, and once in 2016, the rates have been satisfactory for the growers. In 2016, after demonetisation the market value of apples touched Rs 1,000 mark per box. And this year, due to the low production of good quality apples, the rates have crossed the Rs 1,000 mark in certain fruit mandis (markets).
Also read: Kashmir: COVID-19 Lockdown Adds to Woes of Apple Growers and Traders
President of Shopian Fruit Mandi Association, Ashraf Wani, believes that one of the reasons for the ‘satisfactory market value’ of apples this year has been to do with fewer imports from places like Washington and Iran due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Ashraf says he is still worried about the declining prices of apples.
“I sold apples at around Rs 1,200 per box in 2010-11. And after almost a decade, when we get only Rs 900 per box, we say the market is good,” he observes.
Umair, an economy student at the Aligarh Muslim University, has said that from Rs 1,200 to Rs 900, the loss of Rs 300 per box is a huge loss considering that around four million people directly or indirectly depend on it.
“If in 2010 we sold at Rs 1,200, today the rates should have been around Rs 1,500 but it is Rs 900 only. So, we are at a loss of Rs 600 per box,” he points out.
Kashmiri apples provide a livelihood to around 3.5 million people while contributing around Rs 8,000 crore income to the region. Kashmir produces about two million tonnes of apples and almost two-thirds of it goes to the non-local markets.
Decreasing prices
The owner of Agarwal Fruit Company Dehradun, Subhash, who is visiting Kashmir to buy apples, says, “I am in this business for more than 30 years now and I have been coming to Kashmir in this season to buy apples from 2008. Every year, I invest Rs 70-80 lakh rupees to buy apples in different fruit mandis of Kashmir. Earlier, I would buy around 14 trucks of these for Rs 70 lakh. Now with the same amount, I buy around 19 trucks.”
For Subhash, the reason behind the rates not increasing is the quality of apples. According to him, the quantity over the years has increased but the quality has decreased.
But the growers say that the decreasing quality cannot be the only reason, because even good quality apples are not getting a good price.
An apple trader at a fruit market in Shopian district in Kashmir. Photo: Rouf Fida.
“I am a grower and a buyer too. I go to different Indian states to sell the apples that I grow in my orchard or buy from small scale local growers. I have seen the quality of apples that other states produce and I can assure you that Kashmiri apple is the best in every aspect, but still we don’t get good rates,” says Muzaffar Ahmad Ganie, a grower cum buyer of Kulgam district.
Also read: Kashmir: Lockdown Forces Apple Industry to Face More Challenges
Former president of Buyers Union Fruit Mandi Sopore, Mohd Maqsood Dar, who sold Grade A apples at Rs 1,050 in 2010 and at Rs 800 in 2019, blames the grading of apples done by growers while packing. He says, “Growers don’t properly grade apples. They don’t first properly separate different qualities of apples and then pack them.”
The growers, however, say that the grading and packing are same that were in practice in 2010 or before that.
Javid Ahmad of Shurmaal says, “I am 40 years old, and I started assisting my father in grading and packing apples when I was 13 only. If the same grading process in 2010 got a grower Rs 1,000 per box, it should get him the same amount today also if not more. This grading excuse is a ruse.”
Among many other non-local buyers who are currently in Kashmir buying apples, Satish from Delhi’s Azadpur Fruit Mandi landed at Srinagar Airport two weeks ago. Satish has been coming to Kashmir to buy apples since 2005. During these last 15 years, he has bought apples at Rs 500 and Rs 1,100 also. Satish also agrees with Javid and says that mere grading cannot be the only reason.
When asked whether demand for Kashmiri apples in the Delhi market has declined? His reply: “People still believe that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Few local buyers who buy from growers and then send them to different Indian states blame the Jammu-Srinagar national highway and the authorities’ decision to repair the road in peak apple season.
A young agri-entrepreneur and an order-supplier, Salman Javid says, “From the last couple of years, authorities have been halting loaded apple trucks on national highway for days. During that time thousands of loaded trucks accumulate on the highway. When they are let go, markets receive more supply than needed which automatically affect rates.”
Increasing expenditure
On one hand, the rates have almost been constant, and on the other, the expenditure incurred on the production of apples has almost increased twofold. Thus, resulting in the reduction of overall profit for the growers. In particular, the rates of pesticides have increased fast. Growers also say that with the increase in prices, the quality of pesticides has decreased.
Gulzar Ahmad, a large-scale grower, says that in one of his orchards, spread on 18 kanals, the expenditure this year has been Rs 6 lakh, but the income has remained at Rs 1.5 lakh.
Apple traders at a fruit market in Kashmir loading their produce onto a truck. Photo: Rouf Fida.
“There are pesticides whose rates have increased by almost Rs 1,000 per Kg in the last seven to eight years. But these pesticides are not effective. They don’t save our production from scab, mite, leaf infection, and other diseases,” he adds.
The price of wooden boxes in which apples are packed has also increased. The rate of a wooden box in 2012 was less than Rs 50, but it is close to Rs 80 this year. Wooden boxes are mostly used to pack Grade A apples.
The labour charge has also increased. Growers say that a labourer to pick apples from trees was given Rs 200 to Rs 300 a day in 2010. Now for the same task, a worker demands Rs 800.
Zafar is one such labourer of Rajouri who first came to Kashmir in 2004. He started as a labourer himself and now he brings boys from Rajouri in the apple plucking season.
“When I first came to Kashmir, I paid Rs 500 per month as rent for a single room. Now the same room is being rented for Rs 2,500. Rates of everything have increased and so have labour charges,” he says.
Another main expenditure that has increased is the freight charges. Freight charges to Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi from Srinagar increased from Rs 50 per box in 2010 to Rs 105 last year. This year though the charges have come down due to low production.
The spokesperson of Truck Transport Association Shopian, Riyaz Ahmad, says that only diesel expenditure from Kashmir to Bangalore for a vehicle has increased by Rs 30,000 from last year. He also blames the halting of loaded trucks on the national highways.
“Truck drivers don’t want to come to Kashmir in this season because they say they are halted on the national highway for days. They are very practical and they know how much a day means to them. So indirectly we pay them for those days by increasing the freight,” he adds.
Dejected growers
Small expenditure like loading charges, papers, nails, etc., has also increased. To save all these expenses, growers are now selling their produce either on trees or what is known as the ‘crate system.’
Selling on trees saves the effort and money that goes into plucking and packing apples into boxes. The crate system saves a grower from packing the apples. But how effective and profitable these systems are for growers, no one knows.
Mohsin Kanroo of the Shopian district this year has sold his produce on trees. He believes that the result is not worth the effort that goes into plucking and packing apples into boxes.
“It pains me as a grower when I don’t get what I deserve after so much hard work. So, I have decided to sell my produce on trees. I don’t even ask my buyer how much he got. He could get more, he could get less, I just don’t want to know,” he adds.
After tourism, apple production is one of the main sources of income for the people in Kashmir. It was because of the apple production that Kashmir could withstand the unrest witnessed in the region in 2008, 2010, 2016, and even after the Centre’s clampdown in 2019 following the abrogation of Article 370.
“We would send relief trucks to those people who were dependent on tourism, transport or trade for their livelihoods when any unrest would take place. Even in 2014 floods, we send hundreds of trucks to flood-affected areas,” recalls a young apple grower in South Kashmir who does not wish to be named.
“So, it is the BJP government that does not want Kashmiri apples to do well in the market, because they want to crush us economically,” he laments.
Also read: Kashmir’s Business Community Sends Out SOS on ‘Sea of Debt and Destruction’
Not been able to earn a profit, many disgruntled growers have converted a part of their orchard into commercial buildings, others have installed small-scale industries in their orchards. Rafi in Killora Shopian has converted a part of his orchard into a poultry farm.
“The part of my orchard in which the poultry farm is located gives me more money than the rest of the orchard,” he says.
Rafi believes that soon every grower will realise that apple production is not profitable.
“Bank loans, liabilities, credits, everything has increased because we did not get what we expected. So, we often jokingly ask each other which medicine we take to deal with stress that these apples bring with themselves,” he adds smiling.
Like each year, this year too, the growers are hoping to get a good price next year. But will the next year bring any joy for them, only time can tell.
Rouf Fida is the editor of a Srinagar-based online portal The Curtain Raiser.