Cherry blossoms in Kashmir, but growers worried due to lockdown

After a good harvest in recent years, cherry growers in Kashmir are staring at losses due to nationwide lockdown to prevent COVID-19 pandemic and unseasonal changes in the weather this season.

Cherry, the year’s first fruit crop in Kashmir, is almost ready for harvesting but will face as many hardships as last year’s apple. The cherry production continues from May 10 till June end and is the first cash crop for the growers in the Valley.

The production had reached 11,289 and 11,789 metric tonnes in 2017 and 2018, respectively, before coming down slightly to 11,000 metric tonnes last year due to hailstorms in some cherry growing areas.

“This time there are no boxes to pack and dispatch the fruit, due to no production and transport taking place amid the lockdown. Secondly, cherry is a soft fruit with a shelf-life of just a few days. Under such an intensive lockdown, we don’t see any hope of selling our produce,” Mohammad Abdullah, a cherry grower from Lar in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, told DH.

The demand for cherries comes mostly from outside J&K, with almost 90% of the exports headed to different parts of the country, especially metropolitan cities. “Stopping a cherry-laden vehicle for even a few hours in the high-temperature season would result in the spoiling of the fruit,” he said and feared due to lack of fruit processing units in Kashmir, there is apprehension that the crop may get spoiled this season.

His views were echoed by a cherry trader from north Kashmir’s Tangmarg area, who said that last year he had bought 15,000 boxes to pack cherry, but this time he has failed to find boxes due to the lockdown.

“In cherry season five to six trucks would be dispatched daily to different markets across the country, especially Mumbai, where the cherry is in good demand. Even some first-grade cherry was airlifted for five-star hotels across the country. But this time there is no hope,” he rued.

With over 2700 hectares of land under cherry cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union territory accounts for a significant part of the country’s cherry production. Besides Tangmarg and Lar, cherry is also grown in some parts of Srinagar, Baramulla and Shopian districts in south Kashmir.

Horticulture expert Professor Haroon Malik said though there is sufficient machinery in Kashmir to process the cherry crop, the prices that fresh cherry fetches in the market are much higher than what fruit processing units buy it for.