Apple becomes dearer

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, FEB. 3. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Agreed, but where is the fruit that promise to keep one hale and hearty ?

severe shortage of apples has hit the city fruit markets this season resulting in a sharp rise in their prices. With stocks failing to arrive from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, it is estimated that the city has been receiving hardly 10 per cent of the usual consignment.

The officials at Fruit Market at Gaddiannaram where fruits from different parts of the country arrive for getting despatched into the retail market, appear concerned at the drop in apple supplies. "We don't know the reasons but the normal supplies have gone down drastically in the last two months. Against the average supplies of 3,000 boxes and more every day, now we are getting only 200-odd boxes," said Mr. J.Sai Reddy, secretary, Fruit Market. Each box contain 100 apples.

A meagre 7,700 boxes of apple reached the market in January, 2000, compared to supplies of 1.04 lakh boxes during the corresponding month last year. The apple consignments to the city have gone down steadily in the last five months starting from September (2.31 lakh boxes), October (1.36 lakh boxes) and November (1.25 lakh boxes), according to the Fruit Market officials. The consolidated data for December was not available.

With the non-availability of apples increasing, the prices have shot up in the last five months. In retail outlets, apple which was available for Rs. 3 and Rs. 4, only last month is now being sold at a price ranging from Rs. 8 to Rs. 12.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : LB Stadium facelift apace
Next     : Bangalore police 'solve' 25 murder cases