Freight Soars, Fruit Rots: Kashmir's Apple Season Turns Sour

Srinagar- The air inside Sopore fruit mandi is heavy, not with the usual chatter of auctioneers or the sweet smell of fresh harvest, but with silence and the stench of ripening apples left too long in the sun. Crates are stacked like barricades, truck drivers nap on their bumpers, and growers sit cross-legged on empty wooden boxes, staring at their unsold produce.

“This place should be roaring by now,” said Faisal War, who manages transport at the mandi.“Instead, it feels like a graveyard. Our apples are dying a slow death here.”

Freight charges for apple consignments have tripled from ₹100 to over ₹350 per box, as transporters divert trucks through the longer, hilly Mughal Road. Thousands of boxes are still lying in the mandi, unable to move.

Growers say the delay is catastrophic.“Delicious apples that sold for ₹1,200 a box are now fetching barely ₹600,” said Tajamul Tantry, a seasoned orchardist from Sopore.“American apples meant for Bangladesh export are rotting.”

Low shelf-life varieties such as Galla and Kiser have been hit hardest, as prolonged storage and chemical ripening have cut their shelf life nearly in half.

Reyaz Ahmed, a grower from Rafiabad, blamed poor packaging for worsening losses.“The silicon-coated cardboard boxes trap heat when stacked for days, accelerating ripening and spoilage. Much of our produce gets ruined before it even leaves the Valley,” he said.

The 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway, the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country, suffered extensive damage at several places, especially between Nashri and Udhampur, in the aftermath of record rainfall on August 26 and 27, leading to its closure for vehicular movement.

The traffic on the highway was partially restored last week, but hundreds of trucks, including those carrying apples to different markets within and outside Jammu and Kashmir, remained stranded for days, causing extensive damage to the produce.

The Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers-Dealers Union has pegged the losses so far at ₹1,200 crore, but traders fear it could cross ₹5,000 crore if the highway is not cleared soon.

The frustration has spilled into protest. Fruit markets across the Valley remained shut earlier this week, with growers accusing the government of mismanagement and warning that the industry faces its worst-ever crisis.

Truckloads of rotting apples dumped by the roadside have become a grim symbol of the crisis. The images, widely shared on social media, have drawn sharp criticism of the administration and triggered demands for urgent restoration of highway traffic.

For many families, the apple harvest is their single biggest source of income.“This is not just about a few trucks - it's our year's hard work going to waste,” said Tajamul, a grower at Sopore mandi.

Political parties have begun turning up the heat. Former CM Omar Abdullah called the situation“criminal negligence” and urged the Centre to clear the backlog before resuming highway repairs. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti accused the government of“orchestrating the collapse of Kashmir's apple economy.”

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