by Syed Shadab Ali Gillani
SRINAGAR: Following the apple success, a section of plum growers have started storing the highly perishable fruit in cold stores. While this is expected to offer Kashmir’s cold atmosphere storage (CAS) network some lean-season use, growers expect the delayed sale will help the harvest fetch better process as monsoon has run riot with highways and seriously impacted Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
Previously the plum produce used to come in very less quantities to the CAS network and would not cross 200 to 400 thousand crates. “This year it has already reached almost a million crates,” said Maajid Wafai, President of Jammu and Kashmir Fruits and Vegetable Processing and Integrated Cold Chain Association. A crate ideally is around 25 kg. “Given the interest, the growers are showing, we expect it to be around two million crates next summer.”
Wafai said the growers are gradually becoming aware of the benefits that off-season sale fetches. Unlike apple, plum is highly perishable that requires quick transportation to the market as their shelf life is less than a week.
Unlike last year, the market conditions are not very favourable. Massive rains that lashed the region have had a huge impact. The Jammu Srinagar national highway remained seriously impacted for a few days. Punjab, parts of Jammu, and Delhi witnessed inundation because of the monsoon.
In order to extend the shelf life of fruits post-harvested, the cold storage network came handy to the growers.
Kashmir fast surging CAS chain – mostly centred in south Kashmir – is primarily a post-harvest apple facility. For nearly six to seven months of the year starting October, the entire capacity remains busy with Apple.
For most of the rest of the year, the chain remains empty. Though some of the stores have small ripening units, they are running the stores for lack of use. This year, however, some of the stores have specific chambers busy in the off-season, thanks to the plum arrivals.
Unlike apples, however, the growers are unlikely to keep the plum for longer durations. Indications suggest they will keep them fresh in the stores for a month and then sell them in Delhi and other places.
Kashmir’s produces almost half a dozen varieties of plums and most of the produce comes from the Southern part of Kashmir.
In the past three seasons, Kashmir produced an average of about 8,000 tonnes of this fruit each season, using around 1,500 hectares of land for cultivation. The central Kashmir’s Budgam district has the most plum orchards. According to the latest data from the horticulture department, Jammu produces 4,150 tonnes of plums, while the Kashmir Valley produces 7,710 tonnes. Among all districts, Budgam leads with 2,719 tonnes of plum production out of the total 11,860 tonnes, followed by Ganderbal.
“Growers are very happy with the cold storage facilities as it has increased the shelf life of the fruit,” The president said. “We are committed to making people aware of the benefits of cold storage units.”
According to Majid, around one-third of the total produce goes to cold storage units. “We believe that 100% should immediately go to the storage, and then they should start packing.”
A local Plum grower from Lollipora, Pulwama shared his experience, saying, “I made sure to send away all of my produce to these units since the blocked roads would have proved to be damaging for my crop.”
Currently, there are about 40 cold storage units operating in the Kashmir valley. Each cold storage charges approximately 3.5 rupees per kilogram of Plum stored there.
