Compared to last year, prices of the fruit are down by 50-70% dropping to Rs 15 to Rs 45 per kg in wholesale markets and Rs 100 to Rs 150 per kg in retail markets.
With production almost doubling to 3.5 million tons this season, domestic prices of pomegranate prices have come under pressure on high supplies. Exports, however, have been good so far crossing nearly 60,000 tons and are expected to cross 75,000 tons this season, top industry people said. The country’s production normally touches 2 million tons.
Prabhakar Chandane, executive partner, MahaAnar, an association meant to encourage exports, said that new orchards coming up in Rajasthan and Gujarat have hit Maharashtra hard, the largest pomegranate-growing state in the country, with a coverage of over 500,000 acres. The all-India area under pomegranate cultivation is about 1.5 million acres.
With a bumper crop in Rajasthan and Gujarat, the local wholesale markets in Pune and Mumbai are flooded with arrivals while Rajasthan and Gujarat are supplying the fruit to north India. Around 15,000 hectares of land in Rajasthan is under pomegranate cultivation.
[ Rs100 = €1.24 ]
