SRINAGAR: The fruit growers of Kashmir are staring at heavy losses as about 7,000 fruit trucks
carrying nearly 7 lakh apple boxes are stranded on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway for a week and there are apprehensions that the fruit may have rotten.
The fruit growers shut all the major fruit markets in Kashmir, including Asia’s second largest fruit mandi at Sopore in north Kashmir on Monday, to protest halting of apple trucks, especially from Qazigund to Banihal on strategic Srinagar-Jammu highway. Bashir Ahmad Basheer, chairman Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers-cum-Dealers Union said that 6000-7000 apple-laden trucks are stranded on the highway for about a week and they are not being allowed to move on the highway.
Every truck, he said, has an average 1,000 apple boxes worth Rs 7 to 8 lakh and “if we go by the average about 6 to 7 lakh apple boxes are stranded on the highway”. “It is a perishable item and if the fruit is not transported immediately, there is apprehension that the apple may rot, thus incurring heavy losses on the apple growers in the Valley,” Basheer said.
The fruit growers staged a protest in Press Colony Srinagar to demand smooth passage of fruit trucks on the highway. The problem, according to Basheer, has arisen due to mismanagement by the officials on Qazigund-Banihal stretch the on Srinagar-Jammu national highway. The fruit growers said the prices of Kashmir apples have dropped by 30-40 per cent this year due to the entry of Iranian apples in the markets and halting of apple trucks on the highway would add to their losses and worries.
There has been a bumper apple crop this year and production is likely to cross 21 lakh metric tons. Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) president, Sheikh Ashiq said any further delay in solving the problem can badly hit the Kashmir economy, mostly dependent on apple trade.