For banana growers in Tiruchi and Karur, India, prospects have been gloomy since November. A sharp drop in prices has meant difficulties in covering their costs, but there is hope as prices have gradually started increasing in the Tiruchi market, a major wholesale market for the fruit in the State, according to traders.
However, growers say that increase has been only marginal. Prices of the fruit slipped because of a glut in the market and poor demand since November. The rain and flood triggered a fall in demand. At the same time, farmers had to harvest the fruit as they started ripening. They had to dump the produce at whatever prices.
“Banana growers in the district have suffered heavy losses. In many villages, the price of the Poovan variety banana has fallen to as low as Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 a bunch, an unprecedented fall. The price of nendran variety too has fallen sharply. Farmers had invested about Rs.2 lakh an acre to raise the crop,” said A. Nagarajan, State president of the Farmers wing of the Tamil Mannila Congress.
Tiruchi and Karur are major banana growing districts. About 15,000 to 25,000 bunches of different varieties of banana are brought to the market and sold at the open auction.
The volume of trade goes up during festival season. Major temples such as Sri Dhandayuthapaniswamy Temple in Palani and Guruvayur Sri Krishnan temple make their bulk purchases there for panchamirtham and other requirements.
On Saturday, good quality Poovan variety was being sold between Rs. 150 to Rs. 350 a bunch and rasthali between Rs. 100 to Rs. 400, karpooravali between Rs. 50 and Rs. 400 and Monthan between Rs. 100 and Rs. 350 a bunch, according to Mr. Palanivel. However, medium and poor quality bunches were being sold in the range of Rs. 30 to Rs. 50 a bunch.
Mr. Nagarajan said “The increase is just about 10 per cent over the prices that had prevailed over the past two months. Good quality normally fetches about Rs. 400 a bunch. Farmers are still selling the produce at a loss,” he said.
Mr. Nagarajan said the government should promote industries producing value added products from banana in the Tiruchi region to protect farmers from price fluctuation. He demanded the setting up of a cold storage at the Gandhi Market for the benefit of farmers.
In many villages, the price of the Poovan variety banana has fallen to as low as Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 a bunch, an unprecedented fall.
(1 Indian Rupee= 0.015 US dollars)
Source: thehindu.com
