April 6, 2020
Whenever there is uncertainty about income and situations unforeseen, the first reaction of the people about stocking up on provisions and essentials needed for survival, and fruits don’t come under that category.
The nationwide lockdown and immobility of freight and logistics industry that followed the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a collective loss of almost $1 billion (Rs. 7,000 cr) for the fruit farmers across the country.
Summer season for many fruit farmers is the best time between March and May. This season particularly brings businesses as fruits are sold to wholesale markets, consumed domestically, and transported to the worldwide consumers.
Sadly, businesses aren’t so rosy this year.
“We are ready to supply bananas but we are not getting trucks to transport it to the cities,” said Vaibhav Mahajan, a banana grower from Savada of Jalgaon, Maharashtra.
He adds, “Banana prices have dropped by 60 percent in the last two weeks to about Rs. 400 a quintal but still there are no takers due to non-availability of distribution channels and partial close down transportation.”
The highest number of bananas is cultivated in the country comes from Jalgaon district with around 45,000 hectares of cultivated land with the fruit. Bananas have a shelf life of about a week once it is harvested from the plantation.
Earlier to the outbreak of the disease, a trip from Jalgaon to Jaipur, transporters charged around Rs. 45,000, now it has escalated to as much as Rs. 85,000 per trip. This spiked logistics rates has flowed down to consumers in cities. Fruits are being bought at higher prices and the middle men are making money down the process while several farmers are struggling to sell their produce across the region.
“Truck and lorry drivers are refusing to transport it, despite bananas being part of essential commodities since they fear that they may not get any restaurants or dhabas on their way which means they may have to do an entire journey, sometimes days without food,” said Mahajan.
The current situation is bound to affect the small land-holding farmers more as these farmers take loans for farming and other agricultural necessities. To state in layman words, farmers will not be able to repay the loans they had taken and may even not have additional money for the next year’s season.
Just like banana growers from Jalgaon, farmers from Amravati district of Maharashtra are facing trouble in selling their oranges.
Pratap Patil, an orange grower from the region is dismayed over the present scenario. “The prices have come down to Rs. 15 per kg from Rs. 35 a kg just a couple of weeks ago. In Amravati and surrounding areas, farmers have over 1,000 tons of oranges plucked and parceled but they are just stationed in warehouses due to non-availability of transportation. Oranges have a shelf life of two weeks after harvest if they are not able to sell then we will incur a major loss this year,” said Patil.
He further added, “Oranges from India are also exported to European countries which has also been stopped during the lockdown. We might face a collective loss of Rs. 2,000 crore if the situation remains the same.”
But the conditions are more severe for grape growers. Grapes stay in open market from March to April and are generally being sold at around Rs. 60 per kg. But now, since the lockdown and low transportation their prices have also significantly increased Rs.100 per kg with sale on the lower side. A low shelf-life for grapes also adds to the difficulty. With summers on, grapes are also used for making raisins but production has halted due to lockdown.
Farmers cultivating bananas, grapes and oranges are disposing their produce as these may rot in the 21 days of lockdown.
Another major fruit business that got affected in Maharashtra is of Pomegranate (Anaar).
Solapur-based farmer Aniruddha Vasant Pujari told that prices have gone down from Rs. 200 per kg to about Rs 25 per kg and estimates losses of around Rs 2,000 crore owing to lockdown.
He said, “The selling cost of pomegranate has also increased due to a rise in storage and crate costs. Earlier, the cost of a crate was Rs. 55 which is now selling at Rs. 90 due to shut down their factories”.
Similarly, apple grower from Srinagar, Maajid Wafai, also an owns a cold storage business. Wafai estimates a loss of around Rs. 200 crore due to lockdown across the country.
Kashmir cultivates around 2 million tons of apples annually and the state has an unsold stock of around 1 lakh tons which will result in losses for apple growers and storage owners, feels Wafai.
“We sell our entire inventory of apples by mid-May but that is not going to happen for sure,” said Wafai.
He added, “Farmers have to keep unsold apples in cold storages, but if the time increases the cost for farmers also increases as well and if the cost goes up beyond a certain time, they abandon their produce in fear of paying for cold storages.”
Similar case is of neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh are also facing troubles due to the lockdown.
Jeet Singh, a farmer from Kullu, is uncertain about his future. “The apple crop requires four-time spray of pesticides and fertilizers during its entire cycle but the exodus of labourers from the state to Uttar Pradesh and Nepal will result in crop failure and losses for the farmers,” said Singh.
Some of the districts in Himachal Pradesh, including Kullu and Mandi are solely dependent on apple farming only. These farmers are not much dependent on crop loans but they certainly take other loans from banks and other financial institutions which may not be repaid on time in the coming months as the whole farming and selling cycle is disrupted.
Taking mango season into consideration, there is some respite for mango growers. The mangoes come in the market from the first week of April and even despite the sluggish logistics, the farmers will be able to sell it due to the long season that sometimes go beyond July. However, mango growers too will face a loss in export trade.