A record 62,800 MT apples procured under MIS during 2010

Himachal Pradesh had record apple crop of about 4.25 crore standard boxes this year and due to shortage of quality warehouses, about 20 per cent crop perished and converted into vermi compost while 26,000 MT apples were sold in the market at Parwanoo (Solan) and Pandranoo (Jubbal), respectively.

The Managing Director of HPMC, Mohan Chauhan clarified that the apple bags lying at HPMC yard at Parwanoo during the season, indeed belonged to the buyers, who had stacked these bags for sorting and further transportation to the terminal markets.

The balance spoiled quantity, which could not be lifted /transported due to compelling reasons was being utilised for converting it into organic manure for commercial sale, he added.

The HPMC successfully handled and sold small quantity of about 3240 MTs of apple during the season, which helped in fetching good returns.  And the success of the experiment gave rise to the optimism that the Parwanoo market would go along way in solving the problems of the growers from the next year.

He said that due to large scale procurement of apple under MIS the prices of the table variety apple were maintained throughout the season and the growers were greatly benefited.

The corporation managed to maintain the prices of cartons /trays at a reasonable level and sold about 7.61 lakh cartons at the rate of Rs 34-36 per carton besides selling 19 lakh apple trays, he added.

Had the price of carton not been fixed by the corporation, the prices in the open market would have shot up? He said that HPMC has managed to process about 700 MTs of apple juice concentrate (AJC) and expected another 100 MTs in the next fortnight.

Disclosing further he said that HPMC has so far supplied about 120 MTs of AJC to Pitanjali Ayurveda (Haridwar) besides procuring commitment of 350 MTs. It has also undertaken job work of about 75,000 litres of apple juice natural for Mohan Mekeins Ghaziabad (UP) during the season, he added.

He said with the close of apple season, the corporation had geared up for providing post harvest facilities like Tree Sparay Oil, Insecticides, Pesticides, Fungicides, Organic applemanure, Power Sprayers, tools and implements at most competitive prices.