Few takers for oranges in Kerala

Even at below Rs.20 a kg, not many takers for the fruit

The recent deluge in Tamil Nadu has resulted in a decline in the prices of orange which otherwise is in good demand in the State during the season.

That, coupled with a high yield of the Nagpur varieties of the fruit, has resulted in the traders here selling the fruit at prices below Rs.20 a kg. Small junctions in the main towns in the high range areas bordering Tamil Nadu are dotted with vehicles exclusively selling oranges at Rs.100 for four kilograms.

Sellers say that even at this price there isn’t much demand for the fruit as the high range area is still witnessing rainfall and the day temperature is at a low. Usually, the winter season has good demand for orange juice in eateries and cool bars with the day temperatures remaining at a high, says Remesan T., who runs a bakery-cum-cool bar at Kattappana.

As usual, large quantities of Nagpur oranges which have only a short shelf life arrived for the Tamil Nadu market.

However, with virtually no demand in the wake of heavy rainfall there, large quantities were diverted to the border district to sell at a low price.

Wholesale dealers say that they get oranges from Nagpur at prices as low as Rs.15 to Rs.20 a kg.

They say that expecting a further fall in the prices, farmers sell even the near-ripe ones resulting in a flood of oranges in the market.

Those at the receiving end are the fruit farmers of Kanthallur in the district, where the harvesting season of orange is slowly coming to an end. Chandrasekharan, a farmer at Guhanathapuram, told The Hindu on Wednesday that Tamil Nadu was their main market. There are virtually no takers now for their oranges. Usually some visitors to the farms would have taken their oranges at a good price.

The farmers in Kanthallur grow both the Nagpur and the traditional varieties of oranges.

He says that they sell orange at prices ranging from Rs.18 to Rs.20 a kg.

However, the situation suddenly changed with no takers for their orange, especially for the traditional variety, which the farmers claim have longer shelf life and are sweeter than the Nagpur variety, though smaller in size.