Unseasonal rainfall in India’s Mahabaleshwar region is impacting the strawberry crops. Rainfall over the past two days has caused significant damage to close to 90% strawberry plantations in their most important growth stage of fruiting. Both harvested strawberries and crops in the fields are falling prey to fungal infections, reducing the shelf life of the berry.
Produce hitting the markets was of an inferior quality; consequently in some markets there was a 50% reduction in the strawberry retail prices.
Nitin Bhilare, president of the Strawberry Growers' Association of India, told the Times of India that 90% of the strawberry plants were affected with the fruit rotting. Mahabaleshwar and its surrounding areas have been receiving rain continuously since Monday, causing damage to 80-90% of fruiting in plants. The daily production from the 2,000-acre strawberry plantation in Mahabaleshwar and surrounding regions normally is around 10 tonnes during this season.
As strawberry production plummets, some growers saw their daily production drop by 50%, and prices dropped from 300-400 rupees per tray to 150 rupees.
