June 22, 2020
Growers refer the issue to the recent map-related issues for their move.
North Bengal’s pineapple farmers are of the view that they will not be giving their produce to Nepal, reason being the border issue of Indo-Nepal recent map-related developments.
In recent days Nepal has claimed to revise its political map to include Kalapani, Lipu Lekh and Limpiyadhura regions, which originally have been claimed by India. New Delhi responded in a stringent manner, stating that these forceful enlargement and expansion of territorial claims will not be accepted by India and these grabbing is unlawful.
Kajal Ghosh, president, Pineapple Merchants’ Association, said India and Nepal had been maintaining friendly relations for decades now, but “Nepal has recently taken some decisions despite India’s dissent”. “That is why we have decided not to send pineapples to Nepal this time.”
In north Bengal, pineapple is grown in the Bidhannagar belt of Darjeeling , and the Islampur subdivision of North Dinajpur .
The pineapple fruit is cultivated across 20,000 hectares in north Bengal and the annual production is around 6.2 lakh metric tons. Nearly one lakh or so farmers and merchants are directly or indirectly associated with the pineapple cultivation.
For practically 2 months i.e. July and August every year, pineapples are exported to Nepal and they are also sent to other parts of Bengal and states such as Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, UP and Maharashtra.
A reliable source of the pineapple merchant’s association said at around 3,000 metric tons of pineapples were exported to Nepal annually. “Around 25,000 units of fruits (50 tons) used to be sent to Nepal a day, and a kilo of the fruit fetching around Rs. 40. It meant a turnover of Rs. 10 to 12 crore. However, this year we won’t export the fruit to Nepal. There is a steady demand of the fruit in markets of north India,” he said.
Ranjan Ghosh, secretary, Camenas Farmers & Producers’ Company, an organization of pineapple growers, said they might have to sell the fruit at a slightly lower rate in India, but they were sure there would not be any major loss.
Growers have also urged the Bengal state to make the Pineapple Development & Research Centre in Bidhannagar functional. The project taken up by the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority a decade ago is yet to be operational.