The Hindu Business Line : Drought may hit Maharashtra grapes output

The drop in production is likely to hurt its export of the fruit from the State, Mr Rohit Pandhare, Technical Manager, Mahagrapes told Business Line.

Mr Pandhare said the production was, however, normal in the rest of the State's grape growing areas topped by Nashik, which is known as the grape capital.

The State's grape production this year is likely to be around 4.75 lakh-5 lakh tonnes this year as against the six lakh tonnes it produced last year, Mr Pandhare said.

Meanwhile, grape farmers in the State, who are gearing up for the export season beginning this week, now have their eyes trained on the lucrative Hong Kong and Singapore markets.

Mahagrapes, which has a total membership of about 2,000 grape farmers in the State, regularly helps the community to seek new export markets. This year exports are being kick-started to these two new markets with two containers all set to wing its way there.

"Once they accept the quality of our produce, the orders will start coming in," Mr Pandhare said.

Connoisseurs of the fruit in the domestic and export markets, meanwhile, can look forward this season to indulging their passion for the fruit without the usual worry of pesticide residues with the farmers having undertaken a massive project this year to dramatically reduce the amount of pesticides used on the crop.

Mr Pandhare said that Mahagrapes, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (Apeda) and the farmers had worked on a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the unwarranted use of pesticide on the crop by using other biological controls like herbicides.

Among other things, the farmers also used a strategy whereby all spraying of pesticides on the crop was stopped two months before harvesting so that there are no residues on the fruit.

The move to reduce residues will also be a step forward for fruit from the region to find its due place in the overseas markets, especially in the US and Europe, where there is a huge premium on pesticide free food stuff.

Currently, farmers from Maharahstra export grapes to the UK, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden among other countries.

Exports of fruits and vegetables from this region have picked up over the last few years with farmers realising more returns for their labour through exports than in the domestic market.

For instance, while a kg of grapes gets the farmer Rs 30-40 in the export market after deducting his investments, in the domestic market he gets him a paltry Rs 10-15 in the domestic market.

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