Marketing of Apple in shimla : This article is published to make aware the farmers, traders, exporters, value chain suppliers and consumers about the actual practices followed in marketing of apple in supply chain from growers to consumers

The marketing of apple is done through different channels. Some of them are direct selling of produce through the commission agent in market yards located in states and outside the state, direct procurement by corporates/ agribusiness companies, procurement by the processors and govt. procurement through market intervention scheme (MIS). The good quality produce is marketed through market yards and to agribusiness companies and substandard produce is sold to processors and govt agencies. Traders sometime procure the produce in orchard itself and price is given as per the fruit set in orchard.

Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) has established market yards in apple growing areas of himachal pradesh. In Shimla and kinnaur districts APMC Shimla and kinnaur (S&K) has established 8 market yards for marketing of agricultural and horticultural produce. APMC has constructed the market yard equipped with basic amenities for growers, traders and other functionaries and also constructed shops for the commission agents. APMC gave licenses to commission agents, which is renewed on yearly basis. At present the 1% market fee is charged and maximum of 5% commission is charged from the buyer of produce. There are no charges from the growers in APMC yards except the incidental charges like labour and weighing charges etc. 

Establishment of market yards proved to a bane to the growers of area especially the apple and vegetable growers. APMC has allotted temporary auction space (locally called phad)to the commission agents, and farmer bring his produce at auction space and produce is sold through open auction,  which is a transparent way to sell the produce. In earlier times grower has to sell his produce outside the state and was exploited by the traders by various types of charges and commissions. Local markets have provided great relief to farmers and solved the marketing problem to great extent.

 In spite of above benefits of local market yards, new problems has also arose for the marketing of fruit and vegetables, the problems are different for different commodities, some of them are listed below.

Apple : the marketing of apple starts with the snowfall and number of chilling hours what a plant receive. Good snowfall results in good availability of nitrogen, good span of moisture and availability of temperature necessary for bud breaking. Clear, sunny and warm temperature during the flowering in april is also necessary which is prediction of good apple crop. Sunny and warm temperature is also required for proper pollination which results in standard uniformality of fruit size and shape. If all these parameters remains good, there is possibility of good fruit set. After fruit set the availability of moisture and timely rain during per monsoon period is necessary for fruit size development and to avoid fruit drop. The hailing during the same season is also having great impact on fruit quality and its volume. 

All these factors are also important for stone fruits like peach, plum, apricot and cherry. A good and quality crop will featch good price in market which set a momentum for the good price for apple crop.

The early varities of apple generally hit the market in end of june of start of july. At that time available fruit in market is mango. If there is rush of mango, it will affect the price of apple, and loader are not very interested to lift the apple at very high price if they have economic alternative in market like mango. Hence very early crop of apple will not fetch very good price if there is good mango crop. The price of apple pick up with the going season of mango. It is expected that the early crop of apple which comes in 15^th to 30^th july will fetch good price. The loaders also divert to apple after closing of mango season.

Other reason for good price of apple in above mentioned period is start of ramjan and festivals in eastern markets like kolkatta, Nepal, Bangladesh, assam etc. the demand for these markets in small to medium size fruits which is filled by apple of low heights.

The apple procured by the loaders/ wholesalers during this period will require about 10-15 days to reach their destination markets/ consumer markets. The demand of apple in these markets decides the price of royal apple which hit the market in first quarters of august. It also decides the profit margins of loaders and their further buying capability. If they suffer loss, they will not be able to bid for higher price for quality apple then coming in market and vice versa.

Other factor which affects the price of apple during second quarter of august is eid, during that time buyers/ loaders visit their homes and there is no buyer in market, hence prices crashes. During this season there is also glut in market, as most of apple producing belts in himachal particularly in Shimla produces apple during this time. The glut in market also affect the price. Some growers spay ethylene on fruit to get the fruit colour, but this affect the keeping quality of fruit and they have the sell it immediately. This rush will lead to less income realization.

A new factor is coming in picture during last couple of years is the exchange rate of Rs in terms of dollar. The exchange rate affects the import of apple. If dollar is costly then the prices of imported apple is higher as importer have to pay more in terms of Rs. On other side if Rs is strong importer have to pay less Rs in exchange with dollar, hence import is encouraged. The main markets which are situated near sea ports is catered with imported apple which is having good keeping quality. This leads to have direct impact on the demand of apple in himachal which ultimately affect its prices in markets.

At present there is 30 % import duty on apple, which makes it competitive in indian markets than imported apple. After full implementation of WTO norms the domestic apple industry will observe great challenge from it. The fast developing cool chain infrastructure and good packing and standardization of imported apple will also leads to narrowing the gap of price fluctuation and will directly affect the apple growers.

It is of the opinion that the cool chain infrastructure which is developing in india will have more positive effect on the imported apple than the domestic apple, as most of these cold/ CA stores are located near consumer markets. The consignments of imported apples are also air conditioned which leads to good keeping quality and yearlong availability of imported apple, which will have many direct or indirect effects on prices of domestic apples.