Kashmir apple prices crash 40% as highway blockade strands harvest

Srinagar, Sep 19: As Kashmir’s apple produce remained stuck inside the Valley due to the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, growers have suffered massive losses with prices crashing by nearly 40 percent.

The prolonged highway blockade, lasting almost two weeks, halted the supply of Kashmiri apples to fruit mandis across India, leaving stocks stranded and rotting.

The sudden halt in supplies forced traders across the country to turn to alternative sources, while Kashmiri growers watched their crop lose freshness, quality, and value.

The crisis has shaken Kashmir’s horticulture economy, which remains heavily dependent on the timely transportation of perishable fruit.

In a video message to growers, Vijay Talra, a representative of Azadpur Mandi, appealed that Kashmiri growers should send only perishable fruit, while the produce that can be held back should not be dispatched as “the rates have come down.”

Chairman of the All Kashmir Fruit Growers Union, Bashir Ahmad Basheer, expressed concern over the crisis.

“Rates outside are very low compared to our expectations, and whatever produce is reaching the markets is mostly damaged after being stuck on the highway for days together. There is a dip in prices by over 40 percent.  Our apples lose freshness and quality when trucks remain stranded, and buyers are not ready to pay even the basic cost of production. For almost 20 days, our stock has remained stuck, leaving growers helpless,” he said.

Basheer demanded that the government step in with compensation and long-term measures to prevent such recurring crises.

The impact is visible on the ground.

At Jammu’s Narwal fruit mandi, a box of Giraav apples sold for just Rs 100 on Monday, compared with Rs 500 earlier, with much of the stock being rotten.

“We have received mostly rotten apples. Customers don’t buy this quality, and a lot of stock has been dumped,” said a dealer at Narwal.

Apple growers and dealers in Kashmir estimate losses of nearly Rs 2000 crore following the blockade of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

Kashmir currently produces more than 20 lakh metric tonnes of apples annually, accounting for nearly 70 percent of India’s apple production.

A mainstay of Kashmir’s economy, the Rs 10,000 crore apple industry provides a livelihood to around 35 lakh people in the region.

Apples from Kashmir are exported to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmadabad, Kolkata, and even international markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway is Kashmir’s only fair-weather surface link with the rest of the country, but it remains vulnerable to frequent closures caused by landslides, shooting stones, and floods, particularly during the monsoon and winter months.

The highway blockade has long been a recurring nightmare for fruit growers, who depend on timely transportation of their highly perishable crop.

According to the Economic Survey Report 2024, the horticulture sector in J&K has registered impressive growth over the past three years, with the area under major horticulture crops expanding by 10,000 hectares (3 percent) and overall production increasing by 4.13 lakh metric tons (18.50 percent).

The report highlights that the area under major horticulture crops rose from 3.35 lakh hectares in 2020-21 to 3.45 lakh hectares in 2023-24.

During the same period, production surged from 22.30 lakh metric tons to 26.43 lakh metric tons, reflecting substantial productivity improvements across the sector.

Despite this growth, experts warn that the lack of robust transport and storage infrastructure undermines the gains.

Without alternative all-weather connectivity and large-scale cold storage facilities, growers remain vulnerable to recurring highway blockades, forcing distress sales and weakening Kashmir’s competitive edge in domestic and export markets.

Trade bodies caution that unless these systemic issues are addressed, such disruptions would continue to push Kashmir’s orchardists into repeated losses.