The 2017 Economic Survey in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) mentioned that half of Kashmir’s population is directly or indirectly dependent on the apple industry and over 3.5 lakh hectares of land in the Valley is under apple cultivation. The National Horticulture Board has stated that J&K is the largest apple-producing region of India, catering to 70 per cent of the total apple demand in the country.
On an average, produces over 20 lakh metric tonnes (MT) apples every year and out of which the A-grade production is around eight lakh MT. During the post-harvest season, four lakh MT directly goes to fruit mandis. Since the region has only 25 cold-storage facilities with a total capacity of two lakh MT, therefore, the remaining two lakh MT does not find any place and due to which the growers do not find a place to keep their produce.
To that end, the controlled-atmospheric (CA) storage of fruits in J&K has come to the rescue of the apple industry which has been struggling due to poor market mainly because of cheaper Iranian apples flooding the Indian market and transportation issues on Srinagar-Jammu highway.
The post-harvest losses translate into huge financial setbacks for the apple growers in Kashmir, where more than seven lakh families are directly dependent on the fruit industry.
The cold-storage units, however, have come handy for the apple growers in the region who are able to sell their produce during off-season and get good returns.
Apple grower said that cold stores have come as a shot in the arm for apple growers in Kashmir. In the year 2017, I brought my A-grade apples to a cold store and I was glad to see the difference. For a 16kg apple box I used to get Rs 450-500 compared to Rs 1,000-1,100 through cold stores.
Thanks to cold stores apples are now sold anytime during the year in Kashmir. For instance, one would have hardly imagined to eat apples in the month of April when apple trees are in bloom and the harvest season is five months away.
There are 25 cold stores across Jammu and Kashmir, with the Industrial Growth Centre (IGC), located in the Lassipora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama, alone hosting as many as 16 CA stores.
The CA storage system ensures an optimum supply of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen besides humidity and temperature to preserve edible items for longer periods of time.
With frozen-storage facilities, most of the food products can be stored for considerably longer periods, sometimes for as long as a few years.
However, certain fresh products such as apples and tomatoes cannot be stored under frozen conditions. For apple storage, the temperature is maintained between 0 degrees Celsius and 3 degrees Celsius.
During peak season, the fruit mandis experience a huge rush of people trying to sell their produce. But now instead of bringing the apples straight to the mandis from the orchards, the growers keep their fruits in cold storage units and sell their produce when the prices are better.
