Summer is almost here and so are the juicy grapes and watermelons. Offering quality fruits at a discount, the farmers co-operative Hopcoms on Wednesday launched the grapes and watermelons mela.
Grapes sourced from farmers in Bijapur, Koppal, Gulbarga, Bangalore, Bagalkot and Kolar districts are up for sale. There is a discount of 10 per cent on grapes and watermelons during the mela that will continue for next two and a half months at Hopcoms outlets in the city.
About nine varieties of grapes made available are Bangalore Blue, Sharad, Indian Red Globe , Flame, Krishna Sharad, Tash E Ganesh, Crimson, Sonaka and Thomson Seedless. While Bangalore Blue costs Rs. 25 a kg, Indian Red Globe costs Rs. 110 a kg. The cost of Tash E Ganesh, Crimson and Flame is Rs. 60 a kilo. Krishna Sharad and Sharad cost Rs. 97 and Rs. 87 respectively while Sonaka cost Rs. 63 and Thomson cost Rs. 50.
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The two varieties of watermelons Namdhari and Kiran are being sold at Rs. 12 and Rs. 14 a kg respectively.
Inaugurating the mela, Transport Minister and district in-charge Ramalinga Reddy, said that Hopcoms should open outlets in new areas. He hoped that the Yettinahole project launched by the government would address water shortage issues in four districts, including Bangalore Rural. “This area is conducive for growing vegetables and fruits and water supply would ensure better crops,” he said.
Director of Horticulture D.L. Maheshwar said that the price of Bangalore Blue had stabilised thereby providing good remuneration for farmers.
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A release from Hopcoms said that it was expecting to sell about 800 tonnes of grapes and about 2,500 tonnes of watermelons during the mela. It sold 496 tonnes of grapes worth Rs. 3.04 crore and 1,142 tonnes of watermelons worth about Rs. 1.55 crore last year.
In Karnataka, grapes is grown in an area of 24,593 hectares and in 2011-2012 the state produced about 5.64 lakh tonnes of grapes.