Fruit Exports Rise 18.5% on Good Summer Harvest

A good harvest of summer fruits like mangoes, grapes, oranges, pomegranates and watermelons has pushed up the country's fresh fruit exports by 18.5% in value terms from a year ago.

According to Agricultural Produce Export Development Authority (APEDA), the country exported 7,682 containers in 2016-17 compared with 6,462 a year ago, aided by good weather conditions that reduced the burden of pest and disease and helped increase per acre productivity of agricultural produce. The bumper production, however, has led to lowering of prices of fruits in the domestic market.

Subhah Arve, president, Mah arashtra State Draksh Bagayatdar Sangh (grape growers' association), said record export of grapes too has failed to support its prices in the domestic market. “Prices of export-quality grapes crashed by up to 50% over the previous year as supplies from Chile and Brazil to the European markets increased substantially,“ he said.“Though prices of domestic table grapes remained better than the export quality grapes, they were still down by about 20% over the previous year.“

Arve said abundance of mangoes, watermelons and oranges even in rural areas was partly to blame for the fall in prices of grapes. Prabhakar Chandane, president of All-India Pomegranate Growers' Association, said, “This year's pomegranate production could be the highest ever, while the prices are also lowest in about a decade.“

Normally, pomegranate season gets over by March 15. However, this year, the flowering and fruiting was delayed due to delayed monsoon rainfall, making less fruits available during the key export months of December to February.