Kashmir’s apple economy is facing historic losses due to the August rains, highway blockages, and disrupted supply chains. High-density orchards, cold storage, and MIS gaps amplify farmers’ struggles, threatening livelihoods across the Valley, reports Masood Hussain
Waseem supports a seven-member family in a remote village in Shopian, about 65 km south of Srinagar. Since the last harvest in November 2024, he and his family have spent nearly every day tending to their small cluster of apple orchards. They had even booked space in a cold storage chamber to preserve the best of their 2025 crop. But a month after the torrential August rains ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, killing more than 150 people and making the arterial Jammu-Srinagar national highway impassable, Waseem fears they may have to give up the storage facility.
“Ever since the rains stopped and the weather cleared, I have been collecting nearly 10 crates, about 250 kilograms of fallen apples every morning,” he said. “The tragedy is that the finest apples are the ones that fall first. What I once sold for Rs 90 a kilogram now fetches me barely Rs 5.”
Fruit Fall
This season, Kashmir’s orchards have witnessed an alarming surge in pre-harvest fruit drop, far beyond the usual 10 per cent loss routinely associated with the Delicious group of cultivars. Experts attribute unpredictable weather to prolonged high temperatures in early summer, followed by relentless rains, which subject trees to alternating phases of heat and water stress.
These conditions, experts suggest, disrupted hormonal balance, accelerating ethylene production and triggering abnormal fruit fall. The crisis coincided with premature leaf shedding caused by infestations of Apple Blotch Leaf Miner and, in some areas, Spider mites, leaving insufficient foliage to sustain fruit development. Together, these stresses forced trees to shed apples prematurely, plunging growers into unprecedented economic losses.
Marketing Networks
The apple harvest in Kashmir operates through four distinct market channels. First, truckloads of apples are dispatched to major markets such as Azadpur in Delhi and to regional mandis in other states. Second, a substantial share of the produce is routed to local mandis in Sopore, Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag and other towns. Third, the top-grade crop is stored in controlled-atmosphere facilities, most of them concentrated in Lassipora, Pulwama. Fourth, there is an extensive but scattered network of makeshift markets, locally known as ghirana markets. Operated mostly by non-local traders, these markets handle tons of fallen apples each day. The fruit is collected, packaged under tents along highways, and then shipped to markets across the country where consumer purchasing power is relatively low.
These ghirana markets have evolved into a major business. Every day before dawn, thousands of auto-owners set out from villages, buying fallen apples and ferrying them to traders. The traders employ hundreds of packers, and the fruit, quickly sorted and packaged, usually leaves for outside markets the very next day. The entire process runs in a tight 24-hour cycle, dictated by the short shelf life of this fragile produce. These markets line both interior roads and main highways that connect the apple-growing districts of South and North Kashmir.
Following massive landslides on the highway that blocked traffic for nearly three weeks and eventually prompted interventions from the country’s highest office, all four apple markets have remained disrupted for the past month. Growers were unable to move their harvest, local mandis ran out of space to store purchases, and ghirana traders could not dispatch their consignments. As a result, the price of fallen apples collapsed to a historic low, just Rs 80 for a 25-kilogram crate. While cold stores are getting part of the load, the growers are slowly getting into apple picking.
MIS Absence
Jammu and Kashmir once had a Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) through which the government offered a minimum support price for culled apples, directing them into juice and concentrate production. The scheme ran for a few years before collapsing under political bickering, with leaders trading unsubstantiated allegations of profiteering. The idea behind retaining C-grade apples locally was to ease the market burden and prevent inferior fruit from dragging down prices. This, in turn, led to the emergence of a small but scattered chain of processing facilities.
“We now have a network of apple-crushing units,” said Hakim Khalid, who operates one in North Kashmir. “Though the government has withdrawn MIS, we still procure apples from the open market to keep our machines running.”
Each unit, designed to operate for about 90 days, has the capacity to crush nearly 3.6 lakh tonnes of fruit in a season. Almost one-fourth of the nearly 20 lakh tons that Kashmir produces a season is the C-category apple that could be consumed for making apple concentrate, juices, chops and other edibles. “If MIS was revived, it would extend operations by at least another month,” Hakim noted, regretting that despite urgent appeals from the trade, the government has not reconsidered the scheme.
High Density
This year, Kashmir witnessed a bumper harvest of high-density apples. After investing heavily in replacing traditional orchards with these delicate plantations, growers began harvesting early. High-density varieties ripen faster and were considered as an ideal safeguard against the region’s recurring weather disruptions, which often paralyse the highway. But while these newer cultivars promise higher returns, they are fragile and demand either a robust cold chain or rapid marketing within a few days.
“Kashmir has made significant progress in shifting from traditional orchards to high-density plantations,” said Vikas Anand, Director of Horticulture in the Kashmir region. “So far, 775 hectares have been converted under government-supported, subsidy-linked schemes, while another 1,500 hectares have been created independently by growers without state assistance.”
Anand acknowledged that the limited availability of plant material remains the biggest hurdle to faster conversion. “We are working with the private sector to produce one million plants. Subsidy, rootstock, and buds have already been provided, and we are now finalising protocols for orchard re-plantation,” he explained. For the current fiscal, Rs 35 crore has been earmarked for the sector, of which Rs 9 crore has already been utilised.
The optimism around high-density apple took a severe hit this season when the harvest coincided with relentless rains across the region. Although growers quickly packed their produce and rushed it to markets, much of it was stranded in trucks and left to rot after the highway became impassable because of a huge stretch actually disappearing near Udhampur. For many, what was expected to be a landmark moment for Kashmir’s shift to European trellis-supported varieties turned into a nightmare, erasing years of investment and hard work in a matter of days.
A Low of the Highway
Historically, Kashmir, the major consumption hub of north India, has often been held hostage to the vagaries of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH44). It is Kashmir’s Achilles Heel. This arterial road, vulnerable to frequent weather-related blockages, disrupts the flow of essentials such as fuel, mutton, poultry and even milk. But the crisis deepens during apple season when a highway closure translates directly into growers’ despair.
“It is a double whammy,” said Shabir Ahmad, a fruit grower from south Kashmir. “We retain the crop, and it rots, and when we push it towards the market, it triggers a glut. We lose here and we lose there.” Apple cultivation is among the most expensive farm practices in the region: official data shows nearly half of the growers’ earnings are consumed by orchard management, pesticides, manures, pruning, replanting, harvesting, packaging and transportation to terminal markets.
In recent years, after the highway was shifted from the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), parts of the road were upgraded, reducing both length and travel time. Yet the most treacherous stretch, between Banihal and Ramban, remains a challenge. When heavy rains lashed the region, locals feared this 30-km stretch would be the first to collapse. Instead, nature struck elsewhere: a 250-metre section of the road between Tharad and Balli Nallah in Udhampur caved in, an area long presumed safe.
The NHAI response was painfully slow, forcing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to openly vent his frustration. “Had the highway been under the control of the elected government, it would have been restored by now,” he told reporters on Engineers’ Day. “But if they cannot manage it, they should hand it over to us. We have engineers sitting in our offices here, and I will deploy a team of them to the spot to restore the highway. Enough is enough. We have been patient because every day they (Centre) kept saying the work would be completed today, but it never happened.”
Omar later held a virtual meeting with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, and within 24 hours, after a paralysing 20-day blockade, the highway reopened. Travellers say the restored patch remains fragile and even a brief shower could choke the road again. For now, however, relief is visible as apple-laden trucks speed towards Delhi and other markets.
The highway closure triggered a crippling transport crisis. Truckers rushed to leave the Valley and avoided returning, fearing they would be stranded for days. Freight costs soared. Last year, sending an apple box to Delhi cost Rs 80; this year, even at Rs 220 per box, no trucks were available.
“In this season, we usually worry about freight rates,” said Manzoor Ahmad, an apple grower and trader at Shopian mandi, his voice breaking. “Right now, we are just looking for any chance to send the fruit out, profit or no profit. It is a year-long investment that must not go to waste.”
An Alternative
With the main highway, the historic 90-km Mughal Road connecting Shopian with Rajouri and Poonch emerged as Kashmir’s lifeline and a quick alternative. The road, however, has its own limitations.
But the sudden traffic surge has exposed its limitations. Its narrow stretches, sharp bends, and single-direction movement for heavy vehicles choked the route, triggering hours-long jams, particularly at Pir Ki Gali. Additional snarls surfaced at Kalidhar, where a small road stretch was damaged.
“This is an access, but it has limitations,” Shakeel Ahmad, Secretary General of the Shopian Mandi said. “On the main highway, we use big trucks having 12, 14, 16 wheels, but the authorities have not permitted anything beyond the basic 6-tyre trucks which carry only 600 boxes.”
Apart from limited access, Shakeel said the road would remain jammed for most of the day as the apple-laden trucks from across Kashmir would head towards Shopian. One day, it created a situation where the entire town, along with the access routes, remained paralysed for a day as convoys crawled.
This led to demands that the road must be upgraded to a 4-lane corridor along with the expansion of the Jammu-Poonch Road, which would secure a dependable supply chain, protect Kashmir’s fruit economy from repeated shocks, and reduce reliance on a single highway.
The government has already decided to build a 9-km tunnel at the Chattapani, spring, locally known as White Water. It was cleared by the central government for Rs 3,800 crore. Once laid, it will bypass the snowbound Pir Ki Gali stretch and offer the Pir Panjal region a dependable alternate highway to the Kashmir Valley. Officials said the construction is expected to begin in 2026 and could take over five years. It would reduce the road length by almost 30 km.
The Railways
Getting a train to Kashmir was no ordinary feat. Built for Rs 43,780 crore, the 272-km railway line boasts 36 tunnels, 943 bridges, and the world’s highest rail arch bridge over the Chenab. Once cement trains began arriving in Anantnag, many believed the line would become a reliable alternative for moving goods—especially apples, Kashmir’s most significant export.
On September 15, after much anticipation, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first dedicated parcel train from Budgam to Adarsh Nagar in Delhi. The service, officially called the Joint Parcel Product–Rapid Cargo Service, is designed to run daily. With eight coaches and a total capacity of 180 tonnes, each coach can carry 23 tonnes of produce. Soon after, a freight train ferried Army logistics into the Valley and returned with nearly 753 metric tonnes of apples. Army officers hailed this as an example of “military–civil fusion” in logistics, combining operational preparedness with economic opportunity for farmers. Media reports suggest that more than 1.25 lakh apple boxes have already been shipped, including 87,137 from Anantnag and 38,239 from Budgam, most bound for Delhi.
Yet, the political class remains unsatisfied. Leaders insist that full-fledged freight trains must be deployed for fruit, with destinations extending beyond Delhi to reach wider markets.
Shimla Gains
Nearly 70 per cent of India’s apples come from Kashmir, with Himachal Pradesh a distant second. Yet, the two regions are often locked in a Srinagar-versus-Shimla contest whenever apple profits rise. Himachal enjoys a natural edge: its harvest begins almost a month earlier. By the time Kashmir’s crop arrives, Himachali growers have already sold their produce and pocketed the earnings. It was to offset this imbalance that Kashmir turned to high-density apple farming.
But this season, high-density apples never made it to the market. Much of the produce rotted at home or in transit, and only a small portion reached buyers in time, though it was well received. The highway crisis compounded the setback, tilting the advantage further towards Himachal. Although the weather also impacted its orchards, Himachal’s crop still reached markets on schedule, fetching better prices than last year.
Market insiders say Kashmir’s apples usually arrive in bulk and help stabilise prices nationwide. In their absence for nearly three weeks, Himachal’s Golden Delicious ruled Delhi and other markets unchallenged.
The Impact
It is still too early to gauge the full extent of losses Kashmir’s apple growers face due to prolonged highway closures, though estimates range between Rs 500 and Rs 1000 crore. Viral videos of truckers dumping rotten apples on the roadside or unloading devastated consignments in mandis reflect the scale of the damage. “I had six truckloads stranded on the road,” said Manzoor Ahmad at Shopian Mandi. “I got one truck back and saw the load destroyed; it cost me Rs 16 lakh. Another truck rotting on the highway is going to cost Rs 17 lakh. Where will I go?”
With the highway now partially restored, the remaining harvest may escape similar delays, provided the weather holds. But the disruption has already rattled Kashmir’s apple economy, a sector worth over Rs 17,000 crore that fuels both pre- and post-harvest industries and sustains thousands of livelihoods. Given its scale and labour intensity, any jolt in the supply chain reverberates across almost every allied sub-sector.
The ripple effects are deeply tied to Kashmir’s financial system as well. Agriculture lending in the region rose from Rs 11,407.09 crore in March 2024 to Rs 12,369.47 crore a year later, a growth of 7.78 per cent. Under RBI’s Priority Sector Lending norms, banks must earmark 40 per cent of loans for key sectors, with 18 per cent specifically for agriculture. If the apple economy falters, tens of thousands of farm-linked accounts risk default, with consequences spilling into urban markets. The cascading flow of Apple money is what keeps the wheels of Kashmir’s economy turning.
