India’s Himachal Pradesh apple growers are appealing forgovernment intervention into an alleged scandal over trucking costs.
Apple growers in the region claim transport companies aredoubling and sometimes tripling fixed rates to ship their fruit.
The price hike is causing huge financial losses for producers,since Himachal apple prices are already low due to quality problems broughtabout by hail and rain damage.
“The apple season thisyear is the worst we have seen in my life,” Sanjay Chauhan, general secretaryof the Himachal Pradesh Fruit Growers Association, told DNAIndia.com. “Thistime, I think the government has failed to control this looting of farmers.Truck operators are charging huge fares from farmers. For a 20kg box, they arecharging Rs120 for a distance of 180 km, which should be about Rs40.”
The region’s transport minister Mohinder Singh, however,told DNAIndia.com that his government was not aware of a transport costproblem, and would have taken action if trucking firms were over-charging.'We have teams and local administration at different levels to check this,”he said.
Himachal Pradesh is heavily dependent on apple sales,DNAIndia.com said, with apple orchards accounting for 48 per cent of state landunder fruit production.
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