The apple growers in Kashmir are staring at huge losses this year as floods and continued closure of Srinagar-Jammu highway has disrupted the peak harvest season, enmeshing growers and truckers in uncertainty.
Bashir Ahmad Basheer, chairman of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers and Dealers Union said the fruit growers and traders have suffered losses worth between Rs 500 to 1000 crores due to floods and continued closure of Srinagar-Jammu highway.
"If this continues, the entire season will suffer, and our sector will collapse," he said.
Packaging costs have risen to Rs 200 for a carton of apples, from 40 rupees earlier, for example.
In South Kashmir, swollen rivers broke their banks, flooding orchards and leaving behind uprooted trees and rotting fruit.
Mughal Road, now the sole operational corridor for traffic with Kashmir and a back-up route for the national highway has also been rendered unreliable, say people living there.
On Thursday, the Indian Railways offered some respite for growers, with plans to launch from September 13 a daily service for parcels from Badgam in the Kashmir Valley to Adarsh Nagar station in Delhi, with two carriages dedicated for apples.
Despair is mounting among truck drivers stranded on the highway as their produce deteriorates.
"I don’t know what to do with these apples and who to blame," said Abid Ahmad Lone, stuck for 12 days, adding that his truckload of apples had rotted, causing an estimated loss of 1 million rupees.
Other truck drivers, some stuck on the highway for nearly two weeks, echoed the sentiment, while growers who managed to dispatch their produce are still anxious.
"We used to sell a box of apples for around 1,600 rupees to 1,700 rupees," said apple grower Zashir Ahmed. "Now nobody is willing to buy them, even at low prices."
The growers have staged protests at Kulgam, Sopore and Kupwara in last few days and stressed on the government to get the fruit transportation streamlined.
“Some fruit-laden trucks left for Delhi after 18 days of halt on the national highway. Hundreds of vehicles laden with apples remained stranded on the national highway for many days especially during peak harvesting season which caused huge losses to growers,” said president, Fruit Mandi, Sopore, Fayaz Ahmad Malik.
“Our early estimates of losses are more than 500 crores,” he said.
Malik though welcomed the start of the train cargo services for fruit, he, however, said it should be extended to Sopore.
“We hope Sopore mandi will be connected with this service.”
September and October are the peak apple season as more than 2,000 trucks are being loaded every day for fruit mandies across the country.
The closure of highway for days has created a lot of hardships for the growers.
Meanwhile, all fruit mandis in Kashmir will remain closed tomorrow.
The Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers Cum Dealers Union today announced a two-day closure of all fruit mandis across the Valley on September 14 and 15 to protest halting of fruit-laden trucks on the Srinagar–Jammu Highway.
The fruit growers’ body said hundreds of trucks carrying perishable fruit consignments remain stranded on the highway and have not been allowed to proceed to their destinations, leading to “massive damages and heavy losses” for growers.
“In view of the persistent demand of fruit growers and dealers of the Valley, it has been resolved that all mandis will remain closed for business on September 14 and 15. Peaceful protests will also be held on both days against the highway restrictions,” the union said.