President, Progressive Growers Association(PGA), Lokinder Bisht said the apple farmers welcomed the proposed increase in incentives dished to the farmer producer companies and reduction in GST and surcharge on cooperative societies in the Budget. But the prices of pesticides and fertilisesr are bound to rise and there is nothing much in this budget for apple farmers, he rued.
Apple farmers from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have been urging the Central government to ban the unbridled import of apple and plant material from Iran with an immediate effect as these are accused to be infected with “some serious cataclysmic pests” that, in turn, can ruin the apple economy in the Himalayan region.
The Centre had had banned import of the Kiwis from Iran this year due to detection of some pests, but the fruit along the apple and plant materials from Iran are being dumped into the Indian Markets from hawala channels via Afghanistan and Pakistan exploiting loopholes in the SAFTA , feared the farmers.
Presidents of the Kashmir valley apple growers association, PGA and Himalayan Apple Growers Society(HAGS) had shot off the letters to the Union government and state government seeking ban on infected Iranian apples, which have arrived in huge quantities in Indian markets for the last few months.
Even Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had also raised the issue with the Union Minister Piyush Goel demanding increase of import duties on apples to 100 per cent to protect the apple farmers of the state recently. But the centre has not acceded to their demand so far.
This has come as a major disappointment for the apple growers of the state. The prices of local apples have gone down and the crores of apple cartons stored in CA stores face bleak markets.
The farmers and traders who had bought the apples at the rate of Rs 60 to Rs 80 per kg will suffer huge losses as any price below Rs 60 per kg will make it unprofitable to sell in the markets, the farmers pointed out.
