Small and marginal kinnow farmers of Punjab are accessing southern and eastern markets of the country and getting good prices for their produce, compared to the local market. Coming to the aid of the farmers, Punjab Agro has tied up with NeML, an NCDEX group company.
NeML (NCDEX e-Markets Limited) and Punjab Agro have identified buyers and wholesalers in all major destination markets through whom the kinnow shall be sold. Punjab Agro facilitates the farmers by providing sorting, grading, waxing and transportation of the fruit to the destined station, while NeML is offering software solution and other marketing facilities, including fair price discovery
Already the state farmers have sent around 1,000 tonnes of the fruit to different destination such as Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Siliguri and Guwahati. The export to other cities started in mid-December. Farmers are getting a premium of Rs 4-6 per kg compared to the local market.
According to horticulturists, kinnow farmers of Punjab mostly sell their produce to pre-harvest contractors or in local mandis through various intermediaries, and rarely receive the fair price. They are forced to sell locally because they don’t have access to various markets. Besides that, the biggest risk for them is not getting payment back if they try to sell the produce to distant markets. There is also lack of transparency in sales.
“The core idea of the kinnow e-market is to make the small and marginal kinnow farmers’ lives easier and to enable them to market their own produce to distant markets. The farmer doesn’t have to worry about where to pack or which party to select for selling kinnow. They simply have to get themselves registered with the kinnow e-market and Punjab Agro with NeML’ s team shall take care of processing, shipping and sales and receiving back the payment on behalf of farmers.”
