Last week my father, an apple orchardist in Himachal Pradesh, got a SOS call from our family fruit commission agent at Asia's biggest fruit and vegetable market in Azadpur, Delhi, saying - "don't send the produce, there are no buyers." That was for the first time, my father recalled, that such a call was made in the last 30 to 40 years.
For a reality check, I went to the Azadpur market early one morning last week when the sale of fruits and vegetables takes place. Unlike the past, when one would rub shoulders with other people while walking through the fruit selling zones of the market, there was nothing of that sort this time. The markets of monsoon fruits - apple, watermelon, pomegranate, banana, pears, plums and litchi - bore a deserted look with just retail buyers around.
"There are very less buyers this year," said a commission agent, while off-loading a watermelon truck. "See, I am yet to sell the produce I received three days ago," he said, pointing towards the packed open storage, called Phad in local parlance, with thousands of cartons of watermelon.
At a stone-throw distance is the apple selling zone, a trader told a commission agent that buyers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka - the up-market states - have told him not to send an apple box costing more than Rs 1,000. A box of apple weighs about 25 to 30 kilogram depending on the size of the fruit. So, the box of large size apple will weigh less as compared to a box of super small, called six-layer.
So, this means that the trader will buy an apple box for not more than Rs 800 at Azadpur-Rs 32 to Rs 35 per kilogram of the delicious large or medium size apple, considering he has to ensure that the produce reaches these states at less than Rs 1,000 and he earns profit too. The smaller grade apple, which forms 80% of the total produce, is getting a much lower buying price.
For all fruits, there are two distinctive markets in India. The better quality fruit gets good price in more developed Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Kerala whereas the lesser grade fruit goes to markets in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and North-East. Traders say that the slowing down of demand is more in the lucrative western and southern Indian markets, which off-late have also been hit by floods, than in the poorer states, bringing down the overall prices.
The overall sentiment in the Azadpur market reflects that the slowdown in the economy was hitting the horticulture produce, much worse than what the agriculture ministry's data depicts. The agmarknet.gov.in shows the price range for a quintal of apple at Azadpur was Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 (approx about Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 per box) for large size. This season, only five percent of the total produce so far is of large size because of the heat wave and very less rainfall during summer months. The lower grades are selling at half of this price.
As my father went against the family trader's advice, our commission agent after failing to sell the apple boxes for about 40 minutes gave up and bought the produce himself. Obviously, he will take a hit as he would have to sell it for some loss. "This is only for uncle. I cannot disappoint him," he said, urging me not to tell other apple producers from Shimla in the market about it. Obviously, he will sell their produce at whatever price it gets. And, he knows the market price is not just.
Chetan Chauhan, senior assistant editor, The Hindustan Times, Delhi.
The article appeared in The Hindustan Times.
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