Rotting Apples On Kashmir Roads Show Why Cold Storage Can't Wait

2025-09-19 10:11:24

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
KO photo by Abid Bhat

On a damp September morning in Shopian, the road leading out of town looked less like a highway and more like a dumping ground.

Crates of discarded apples lay shattered in the mud. Crows picked at the softening skins, while flies buzzed above the rot.

The smell of fermenting apples carried through the air, sour and heavy, reminding passersby of another wasted season.

For weeks, farmers had been arriving with truckloads of fruit only to discover that markets were already flooded. Prices had collapsed. With nowhere to store their harvest, many did what they had done in past years: they tipped the boxes onto the roadside and drove away.

“Each box feels like a part of you,” said Bashir Ahmad, an orchardist in south Kashmir, standing by the remains of his orchard's produce.“When you see it rotting there, it breaks your heart. We spend all year working the trees, and in the end, this is what happens.”

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