Smaller Jhalawar oranges fetch lower price this year
KOTA: The Jhalawar oranges, known for its sweetness, weight, thin peel and longer shelf life, are fetching a lower price from customers this year due to a shrinkage in size, according to traders.
The smaller size, according to agricultural experts, is a result of profuse fruiting due to a prolonged winter spell, which ironically is regarded as favourable for orange cultivation. “Profuse fruiting due to extended winter is responsible for smaller size of the fruit,” said Rashid Khan, horticulture director. “If the fruits are not profuse, the size grows,” he added.
But t raders and f armers insist that the colour and sweetness of the oranges have enhanced over previous year’s production, despite its smaller size.
“The size of Jhalawar orange is smaller than last year, but the colour and sweetness is better this time,” said Jugnu Chaudhary, a local trader at Bhawanimandi orange mandi. The claim, however, has made little impact on the wholesale market rate for the fruit, where buyers seem to go by the dictum size, and not sweetness matter.
“Last year, the per-kg wholesale price for oranges in the mandi was between ₹10 to Rs 40, this year it is between ₹8 to ₹23,” said Chaudhary. The retail price is also low because of the size, said Rasheed Khan. “The price is around ₹10 to ₹21 per kg t his year. Last year, i t was ₹20-25,” said Khan, a trader from Uttar Pradesh.
Oranges are grown in around 39,000 hectares in Jhalawar and the production this year is likely to be 2.37 lakh metric tonnes from 18,000 hectares of fruit- bearing area.
Last year’s yield was 1.10 lakh metric t ons f r om t he s ame amount of area as this year, of which 12,000 hectares was fruit bearing.
Every year t raders f rom Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Bihar, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand come to Bhawanimandi town of Jhalawar for the much valued Jhalawar oranges, which are a competition to its Nashik counterparts.
Since the trees have reaped more fruits this year, but the size of fruits is small, leading to only a moderate demand.
Mandi secretary Phoolchand Meena said Jhalawar oranges fetched the highest price last year. The arrival of oranges to the mandi was also at the highest last year.
“The pri c e of oranges at Bhawanimandi mandi is in the range of ₹1,200 and ₹2,400 per q u i n t a l s t hi s y e a r . I t was between ₹1,500 and ₹2,500 per quintals last year. The arrival of oranges has also come down to 8,000 quintals from 10,000” he said.
Horticulture director Khan attributed this slump in arrival to logistics. “When fruiting is c onti nuous, t he arri val of orange is gradual and not sudden,” said Khan.
Me a n wh i l e , Dashrath Kumar, general secretary, Hadoti Kisan Union has demanded setting up food processing units in Jhalawar for farmers to get better returns.