Oranges turns sour

If you are travelling on the Warud-Morshi road in Amravati, Maharashtra, be prepared to see roadsides dumped with oranges. Yes, real oranges; not spoilt but ready to eat. They are dumped there because there is a glut today and the farmers feel that they would rather dump the crop than accept pittance payments.

We in the city pay anywhere between Rs.40/60 per kg but did you know that this fruit is purchased from the farmer – best quality at Rs.5/kg and poor quality at Rs.2 or 3/kg. In 2014, purchase price was around Rs.15/kg.

The reason for the fall in the price – traders from South India have not turned up to buy the stock due to rains. According to government officials, the Ambia variety of orange, tastes sour and sweet, growing in Sept and most popular in South has gone waste this year as there were no buyers.  – which tastes sour and sweet and grows during September – is extremely popular in south India. “It has all gone waste this year,” said an official from agriculture department. What has also aggravated the situation is a 100% increase in import duty by Bangladesh, which was a significant export destination.

Despite being a Rs-1500 crore industry, the entire region does not have a single supplementary processing unit. A Rs-250 crore processing unit that was to be set up in Amaravati was shifted to Nanded in Marathwada region during the tenure of Ashok Chavan, who hails from Nanded. Maybe its time orange farmers come together and set up a co-operative so that they can sell directly to the consumer at more remunerative prices and make an appeal to the Govt to set up processing units across the orange belt.