An increase in pineapple production in 2015 in ''pineapple city'', or Vazhakulam, a predominantly Syrian Catholic-populated town in India, as well as the availability of other fruits such as oranges and bananas has led to a drop in pineapples prices, which makes the once profitable crop a losing proposition.
Prices of first-grade pineapple fruit are today ruling at Rs 10-13 per kg at the farm-gate, compared to Rs 20/kg levels in mid-2014.
Vazhakulam pineapple was granted ‘geographical indication’ status in September 2009. That tag has, however, proved to be of little use in the current scenario, where realisations do not cover even estimated production costs of Rs 17-20 per kg.
Baby John, president of the Vazhakulam Pineapple Growers Association, attributes the price crash to the roughly 30 per cent increase in production in 2015. “Many farmers took to cultivating pineapple after 2013, when prices averaged Rs 25/kg and even touched Rs 45 for a few days. The glut we are seeing is mainly a result of those prices. Demand, too, has fallen especially since the end of the Ramazan fasting season after July,” he notes.
The lack of processing capacity within the state, despite the availability of pineapples round the year, has only made matters worse.
Apart from the few small-scale units in and around Vazhakulam that supply pulp from low-grade pineapples to processed food makers, there is only the Nadukkara Agro Processing Company near Muvattupuzha. Set up about 17 years ago under a European Union-funded Kerala Horticulture Development Programme (KHDP), it was originally promoted as a producer company of registered farmers for making pineapple juice and fruit drinks under the ‘Jive’ brand. In April 2013, it was fully taken over by the Kerala government after failure to repay a working capital loan owed to KHDP.
Right now, Vazhakulam’s growers are virtually at the mercy of outside buyers. In November-December, a few pulp and juice concentrate makers outside Kerala purchased around 7,000 tonnes of Vazhakulam pineapples. “Had they not bought, prices would have further nosedived,” adds John.
A farmer growing pineapple can harvest about three crops over three-and-a-half years, of which the first two would yield about 12 tonnes fruit per acre and the third roughly 8 tonnes. The cost of production, if the land is owned by the farmer, is around Rs 150,000 per acre for the first crop, going down to Rs 125,000 and Rs 100,000 in the subsequent crops.
Farmers say they can make decent money when fruit realisations are Rs 20 per kg or more. But the margins drop when cultivation is on leased land and go into negative when prices fall to the levels they are today.
(1 Indian Rupee=0.015 USD)
Source: indianexpress.com
