Vom Fuße des Himalaya – Wertschöpfungskette Äpfel in Indien

Abstract

With nearly 2.3 mil t apple cultivation on 314,000 ha, India ranks as the 5th largest apple producer worldwide, but amounts to only 2.4% of India’s overall fruit production. Apple cultivation is traditionally concentrated in the provinces Jammu and Kaschmir (ca. 70%), Himachal Pradesh (ca. 20%), Uttarakhand (ca. 10%) und Arunachal Pradesh in the foothills (1000 to 3500 m) of the Himalayan mountains with 800–1600 CH provides sufficient chilling. Despite low yields of an averaged 10 t/ha, apple of the ‘Red Delicious’ group is an economic crop—relative to vegetables—for smallholder farmers. The fruits are transported 4 to 8 days per truck sometimes on poor roads and without cooling to their destination, whereas imported fruit arriving at a port benefit from shorter inland transport and cool chain. Lack of harvest techniques, storage facilities, refrigerated transport and protective packaging results in considerable losses along the domestic apple supply chain.

Publication