Reduced area and the unavailability of quality produce have threatened to cut shot Indian pomegranate exports for the second consecutive year. Ironically, this shortage comes at a time when ex-farm prices of the fruit are highest in the last few seasons.
Prabhakar Chandane, President, Pomegranate Growers’ Association of India, said the country has around two lakh hectares of area under fruit cultivation. However, around 50,000 hectare of the area has been reduced this season. “This is mainly because of repeated attacks of bacterial blight on the crop due to year-on-year heavy and unseasonal rain,” he said.
Most farmers have diverted their area for growing fruits like papaya and custard apples.
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Karnataka are the major pomegranate-growing areas of the country. The majority of the pomegranate orchards, Chandane said, was in Maharashtra which alone accounts for 1.85 lakh hectare. “Our orchards have sustained the maximum losses due to the attack of bacterial blight and thus this state has seen more than 50,000 hectare of the area being reduced,” he said.
He said, at present, the orchards in Rajasthan have reported better yields while those in Gujarat and Karnataka have reported losses.
Pomegranate was introduced in the arid and dry areas of Maharashtra as a commercial crop for the farmers. Solapur, Beed, and other areas, which have significantly low rainfall, have seen farmers going for this crop.
The most commonly grown variety is the Bhagva and Ganesh which were developed by the Solapur-based ICAR’s Pomegranate Research Institute. However, Chandane and other farmers say both these varieties have lived their shelf life and a newer and more resilient variety has to be developed. Farmers have said the new variety should also be able to withstand increased moisture stress. “We have been asking for a new variety for a long time but we have not received any encouraging news from any of the research institutes,” he said.
Currently, farmers can command prices between Rs 140-150 per kg for export-quality fruits. But exporters say the availability of quality fruit is very low. “The overall availability of the fruit is low, thus prices have shot up in face of increased demand,” he said.
Bangladesh accounts for around 80 per cent of Indian exports. India had exported around 63,351.14 tonnes of the fruit in the fiscal of 2021-22. This fiscal (2022-23), Indian exporters have sent 14,401.2 tonnes of pomegranate out so far.
