India: Kashmir cold storage business down by 40% this year
Due to factors
like low crop yields, fungal diseases damaging the fruit and increases in the
number of new units, the cold storage business in Kashmir is down by 40 percent
this year. Cold storage owners say that the monthly cold storage charges have
also declined by 10 rupees per box.
Owners say that 40 percent of the storage space stands empty this year
The low yield of
apple and other fruits this year is among the reasons why less of them have
been stored in the cold storages. Owners say that 40 percent of the storage
space stands empty this year.
Kashmir this year
produced about 1.5 mln tonnes of apples, 30 percent less than last year when
Kashmir produced 2.3 mln tonnes of apples.
Amount of fruit stored this year would not provide for the expenses
they have to meet
To run a cold
storage, it costs owners around Rs 300,000 per year, which includes electricity
bills, employee salaries, cost of equipment, and maintenance charges. One owner
stated that the amount of fruit stored this year would not provide for the
expenses they have to meet on electricity, labour, machinery and technical
staff.
According to
kashmirreader.com, Kashmir units have the capacity to store 200,000 tonnes of
apple in about 30 cold storage units that are mostly based in districts Pulwama
and Shopian.
