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| Kashmir fruit industry loses 1000 crores to 57 days of unrest | | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sep 5: The fruit industry of Kashmir has suffered a whopping loss of Rs 1000 crore since the unrest began in the wake of killing of Hizib cammandar, Burhan Wani.
The Kashmir based fruit growers told early TIMES on Monday that they are unable to export their produce to outside mandies due to the current unrest. "It has become extremely difficult for us to take care of orchards and fetch the fruits to markets. August and September are normally the season of fruits but in this Spell of curfew and unending shutdowns we have lost 1000 crore," one of the fruit dealer who is also a member of fruity growers association said.
Official figures reveal that in 2014-15 growers had also suffered financial losses worth Rs 1425 crore due to the floods. Fruit growers had submitted the memorandum to the centre putting the loss at Rs 2890 crore in 2014-15.
"This was the main season of peaches, pears, plums and apples. But due to the unrest there is no market for these fruits. Fruit mandis, which are the main places of marketing of apples, are not opened. We don't sell the fruits directly to traders; we sell them in the mandi from where people take them to other places. But the traders are not able to come due to the situation in the Valley. This is a big reason for huge loses," said Mushtaq, a grower from North Kashmir.
According to officials, the horticulture generates about Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 6,000 crore annually for the state, and most of it comes from the export of apples. Different fruit crops are cultivated on 3.15 lakh hectares of land with 1.76 lakh hectares under apple cultivation alone.
In the state where horticulture is considered mainstay industry after tourism, the unrest could not have come at more inopportune time. "Apples are ready to be traded. Where will we take the fruits to, there is no system of cold storage." said Habibullah, a grower from Kupwara district.
Sources in the horticulture said that in August, ripe apples are plucked from orchards in the Valley and packed to be transported to all parts of the country and abroad. "The last 57 days of unrest in Kashmir have not allowed the fruit to be trucked out," they said.
The fruit growers added that due to the prevailing unres fruits need to be dispatched outside during night time, which is quite a difficult task. "We cannot send our fruits to the desired destinations since we are not able to get vehicles from the same place under prevailing circumstances. Still we are hoping for the best. If situation normalizes may be we will get the results of our hard labour," they said.
A senior official in the Horticulture department however said 34331 Metric Tonnes (MT) of fruit have been dispatched to mandis outside the state since April 1 2016. |
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