Jahangeer Ganaie
Pulwama, Aug 8: After a sluggish market during the initial stage of the plum season, several growers preferred to keep their produce in cold storage units that are fetching good returns at present.
Plum growers said that there used to be a good demand for plums during the initial stage of the season but that wasn’t the case this year.
They said that due to the low demand for plums, several growers kept their part of produce in cold storage units with a hope that demand will grow and will fetch good returns.
Gulzar Ahmad, a fruit grower said that there was a minimal demand for Kashmiri plums from the markets across the country due to which the rates plummeted during the initial stage.
He said that due to low demand, many plum growers kept their produce in cold storage units and that is currently fetching good returns.
Sameer Ahmad, another plum grower said that this year rates were down by around 50 per cent compared to last year during the initial stage due to which some growers suffered losses.
He said that earlier one kg of plums were being sold at around Rs 30-50 but currently one Kg of plums are being sold at around Rs 100.
The growers said that many among them after witnessing low demand have explored the option of keeping their produce in cold storage units. They were hopeful that there will be good demand once they start packing plum from cold units so as to get good returns and that has turned into reality.
Officials said the rates were down due to bumper crop and ripening of crops in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh at the same time during the initial stage.
Notably, Kashmir on average produces around 8000 tons of plum with about 1,500 hectares of land under plum cultivation. (KNO)
