CHANDIGARh: Amid the unprecedented climate crisis and unseasonal rains leading to flash floods and landslides besides hailstorms, the apple production this year in Himachal Pradesh is likely to drop by 40 to 60 per cent as compared to last year. Thus, the Rs 5,000-crore apple economy of the hill state will get a severe hit.
The apple production was at 6.99 lakh metric tonnes in 2025, which is estimated to be around 4.36 lakh MT this year (about 2.15 crore boxes), a huge drop of 2.63 lakh MT. The vagaries of weather, such as insufficient winter snowfall, unseasonal spring rains, hailstorms and erratic temperature fluctuations, are likely to hit apple production, the mainstay of the farm economy in eight districts of the state.
Director of Horticulture, Himachal Pradesh, Satish Kumar said, "The area under apple cultivation is about 1.16 lakh hectares, about 49 per cent of the total area under fruit crops, which is 2.37 lakh hectares, and production was 6.99 lakh MT in 2025, which is estimated to drop to 4.36 lakh MT during 2026."
According to data from the horticulture department, in terms of boxes, apple production was 3.49 crore in 2025-26, 2.51 crore in 2024-25, 2.11 crore in 2023-24, 3.36 crore in 2022-23, 3.05 crore in 2021-22 and 2.40 crore in 2020-21, flagging startling variations in production.
The area under apple cultivation has expanded phenomenally from 400 hectares in 1950-51 to 1,16,338 hectares in the 2024-25 fiscal year. As far as stone fruits are concerned, which mainly include apricot, cherry, peach and plum, the area under cultivation is 17,306 hectares and production is expected to decrease slightly from 24,622 MT last year to about 23,000 MT this year.
While talking to this newspaper, President of the Fruit Vegetable Flower Growers Association, Harish Chauhan, said, "The state government has estimated that apple production has fallen by 40 per cent, but according to us the production is down by 60 per cent. The government says there would be 2.15 crore boxes, but we estimate around 1.80 crore boxes. Last year it was 3.49 crore boxes and in 2024-25 it was 2.51 crore."
"The pre-assessment is not perfect as there is always variation. One cannot analyse the size and prediction of all fruits in the early stage. We talk to apple growers across the state and then analyse, while the government does the assessment through its horticulture development officers," he said.
Chauhan said apple production this year has declined due to unfavourable weather conditions as neither snow nor rain arrived on time. "As there is a lack of irrigation facilities, we are dependent on the weather. Thus, there is a dire need to strengthen irrigation systems. Temperatures were reasonably high with inadequate chilling hours.
Traditional varieties require 1,200 to 1,600 hours below 7 degrees Celsius, while early varieties require about 600 hours. Hailstorms have also damaged the apple crop. Not to forget that input costs have increased and production is going down. Thus, income is going down and it is becoming difficult to sustain farming as we are dependent on the weather."
"The apple economy of the state is about Rs 5,000 crore. Stone fruit production is also on the decline due to global warming and climate change, with temperatures rising by 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius, though growers are getting good returns," Chauhan said.
The apple growers have urged the state government to provide irrigation facilities to every orchardist and make them aware of the crop insurance scheme so that the losses could be recovered to some extent.
