Srinagar: Panic has set in among a section of apple growers in Kashmir as hundreds of load-carrier trucks lined up outside Lassipora and other cold storage facilities over the past two days, desperate to offload their produce amid collapsing prices and high transportation costs outside J&K.
Growers who contacted Ziraat Times said that apple boxes, which usually fetch between ₹900 and ₹1,300 at this time of year, are now selling for as little as ₹500 to ₹700.
“We are forced to sell at throwaway prices. With NH-44 still far from normal and mandis flooded with unsold stock, we fear bigger losses if we hold on,” said Bashir Ahmad, an orchardist from Shopian.
The crisis stems from the prolonged closure and intermittent reopening of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44), which has severely disrupted the Valley’s supply chains. With truckloads of apples stuck for days and market arrivals exceeding demand, wholesale prices in outside mandis have dropped sharply.
Cold storage operators at Lassipora said they were overwhelmed by the sudden rush. “Hundreds of trucks have been arriving daily, and storage space is quickly filling up,” one operator confirmed. “Growers are rushing to secure whatever cash flow they can manage.”
For many farmers, the choice is stark: sell cheaply now or risk produce rotting in transit. “It feels like complete ruin is waiting if we don’t liquidate our stock at whatever rate buyers offer,” lamented Abdul Majid, another grower.
The apple industry, which contributes significantly to Kashmir’s rural economy, has already incurred losses in several hundred crores as growers’ fruit in hundreds of trucks rotted in transit on the highway.
Now growers are urging the government to step in with emergency market support, freight subsidies and faster clearance of highway blockages to stabilize the situation.
Unless transport bottlenecks are resolved and market confidence restored, farmers warn that the ongoing panic selling could snowball into a long-term crisis for Kashmir’s horticulture sector, sending thousands of apple farming families into debt and lack of adequate cash to cover the next year’s expenses.
