Kerala - Kochi   

Distress sale of pineapple by farmers

Photo: Vipin Chandran

FIRE SALE: Pineapple prices have crashed. Here a farmer, V. P. Mathai from Mulanthuruthy, does brisk business in the city. —

KOCHI: Selling pineapples at Rs. five a kg, or even less if you bargain, V. P. Mathai from neighbouring Mulanthuruthy is trying to make the best out of an unprecedented fall in prices due largely to abundant early rains this summer.

On Thursday, Mr. Mathai brought a jeep-load of pineapples to the city in a desperate attempt to get something back for his labour and investments in his eight-acre farm, taken on a lease. This has been the worst among the last three years, he said speaking in front of a heap of around 600 pineapples of varying sizes.

As his driver dozed in the twilight sun, the pineapple farmer quickly arranged the fruits before a crowd of buyers. They swarmed around him trying to get a good deal.

Indeed, scores of farmers in Pothanikkad and areas near Kothamangalam have abandoned their crops because of the price fall, said Mallika Haridas, president of Community Development Society under the State Kudumbashree mission.

She was speaking about women like her who had taken up pineapple cultivation on a collective basis under inspiration from the Kudumbashree mission.

Pineapple prices are ruling as low as Rs. three a kg in the growing areas, the core of which is Vazhakkulam, near Moovattupuzha, Asia’s biggest pineapple hub.

Dr. K. P. Kuriakose of Pineapple Research Station, Vazhakkulam, said that the price fall has been triggered by early rains.

It is not the case of a bumper crop. It is that early rains have ensured that more pineapples than what was expected have flooded the market for the current month.

Generally pineapple is available round the year. Their production is staggered, said a senior official of the Kudumbashree mission here. She said that the good rains early summer has resulted in a glut in the market. However, she said that Kudumbashree women farmers may not have been the worst hit.

Bulk of the produce from the 500 hectares cultivated by women under the Kudumbashree mission were harvested early May when prices were ruling high.

In the weeks running up to Easter and a little later, pineapple prices ruled as high Rs. 20 a kg.

It is estimated that pineapple cultivation is spread over 13,000 hectares in Kerala. The total annual production is to the tune of more than three lakh tonnes.

The main reason for a situation like the one now being faced by pineapple farmers is that there is not enough capacity for processing the fruits. Dr. Kuriakose said that in some cases even the established capacity utilisation was not taking place.

Besides the Kerala Government and European Union-promoted Nadukkara Agro Processing Company Limited, pineapple farmers look to small-time processors for selling their produce in a market glut.

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