Govt, Separatists upset Kashmir’s Applecart

Amid continuing curfew and shutdowns, the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy – Rs 8,000-crore apple industry — is caught in a crisis with the government and separatists urging the fruit markets to follow their schedule.
Kashmir’s biggest fruit market at north Kashmir’s Sopore town is shut for the past three days following the killing of a youth in the area.
The government wants them to operate from 9 am to 6 pm while separatists want them to remain closed and follow their shutdown calendar. Dozens of youths, backed by separatists, assembled outside the fruit mandi on Wednesday and threw stones on apple-laden trucks which were leaving for other states.
On normal days, the sale of apple is conducted during early morning hours and during the day apple boxes are loaded onto the trucks to be sent outside state during the night.
The 30-year-old schedule of Sopore Mandi is in line with the working of fruit markets across the country, particularly Azadpur, New Delhi, where sale is conducted during the morning hours and the price of apple there determines the market rates in Kashmir. “But, the police have closed the entry to the fruit mandi. They don’t allow us to come here till 10 am and fire tear smoke shells inside to chase us away. Over one lakh boxes return to fruit growers every day and are rotting in their homes,” Sopore Fruit Mandi president Mushtaq Ahmad Tantry told Kashmir Post.
“Our schedule has been disturbed. People working are threatened and outsiders have left the Valley after police shelling in the past two days,” he said.
Established in late 1980s, the Sopore Fruit Mandi is considered one of the Asia’s biggest fruit markets. Nearly 2 crore apple boxes are sold in the market and annual turnover is over Rs 6,000 crore, Tantry said.
More than 50 days of curfew and shutdowns in the Valley have put a question mark on the Rs 8,000-crore fruit industry, as growers and traders are unsure on how to go ahead with the business amid continuing killings and police’s alleged lockdown of the fruit markets in the morning.
Kashmir produces, around 10 crore boxes of apple (18 kg each) every year, 95 per cent of it is sent to different parts of India and some varieties are exported to Bangladesh.