The overall apple production in India has increased compared to last year's season, says Zahoor Ahmad Shah, co-founder of eAgriMandi, a company in India that strives to assist growers to be able to sell their produce. "The Jammu and Kashmir field reports point to a moderate-to-good apple crop, after a mixed bloom and scattered hail and rain events. Nationally, India's apple output in 2024/25 is forecast at around 2.55 million tons, which is about 6 per cent higher compared to last year. This usually supports steady movement from Jammu & Kashmir, too. A wet spring and early summer pattern in North India delayed or affected fruit set in some belts. Timely June rains then helped fruit size in other belts."
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According to Shah, there's been a shift in cultivation towards Gala varieties, among other options. "Looking at dominant varieties, the Delicious group, consisting of Red, Royal, and improved strains, remains a large base in Kashmir. There is a rapid shift to early coloring, high-return cultivars, such as Gala strains, Red Velox, Jeromine, Super Chief, and Scarlet Spur on M9 rootstock. This shift has to do with an earlier harvest, better color uniformity, and higher pack-outs."
As most of the apple production is for domestic markets, the competition mostly comes from imports, Shah explains: "Domestic demand is healthy, driven by a bigger all-India crop and steady retail offtake. Gala-type and bright-colored reds are moving fastest with retailers, due to appearance, crunch, and their early arrival. Institutions still take Delicious strains for volumes. We also have to deal with imports, as India is set to import about 600,000 tons in 2024/25, mostly from Turkey, Iran, South Africa, USA, affecting the late-season pricing for domestic fruit. There is an import duty of 50%, with a minimum import price of 0.58USD/kg. The Centre recently clarified that no hike has been notified, as there were claims of this being increased to 0.92USD/kg."
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There are still some apples that are exported to other markets, but a large majority are sold to Indian metros, Shah states. "India is a net importer; exports are small. In 2023, India exported 22,000 tons of apples, mostly to Nepal, Bangladesh, the UAE, and the Gulf countries. For J&K, most of the volume goes to Indian metros, such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad, via the big mandis. 1.31 million tons moved outside J&K in 2023-24, showing strong domestic absorption."
"eAgriMandi provides block-level harvest alerts, maturity indexing, such as starch and pressure proxy via sampling workflows, and Quality Control at the pack-house, leading to higher pack-out and fewer rejections. We act as a procurement partnership for corporates, handle harvests, provide quality check parameters, packing, and logistics, such as air-conditioned reefer trucks owned by eAgriMandi. We offer many more services, basically fitting in the middle, between the farmer and the buyers," Shah concludes.
For more information:
Zahoor Ahmad Shah
eAgriMandi
Tel: +91 954 187 2354
Tel: +91 600 513 2072
[email protected]
