Price dip worries jackfruit farmers

KENDRAPARA:  A bumper jackfruit harvest in the district has emerged as a cause of concern for the farmers.The price and demand for jack fruit have gone down considerably. Partha Mohapatra, a farmer of Thaori village, said around 20,000 jackfruit farmers of the district are now worried as its price has crashed from `25 to `15 per kg. He said several farmers in the district are mulling to give up jack fruit farming.

Jagannath Behera, a jackfruit farmer of Ramanagar village, said the price of the fruit was `30 per kg three months back. But now the price has reduced by half. “We would not be able to cover the cost of cultivation even by selling our entire produce,” he said. 

Pratap Das of Bagada village said the price of the exotic fruit has never sunk so low in the past decade. He said hundreds of jackfruit trees were uprooted during  cyclone Fani last month due to which the farmers rushed to the markets to sell their produce.Pratap said the need of the hour is to set up a cold storage in the district. “We had demanded that the authorities concerned should set up a cold storage and food processing plant in the district. However, our pleas fell on deaf ears,” he said.

Abhinya Jena of Gandakhia said 10 of his jackfruit trees were uprooted in the cyclone. He said during Sabitri puja, the farmers of his village sold their produce at a decent price. But after that, the price of the fruit has been dwindling alarmingly.

Manoj Sahoo, a vegetable shop owner of Kendrapara, said jackfruit growers are forced to resort to distress sale. He said the two main reasons are failure to identify market linkage for the fruit and supply of good quality produce from neighbouring States like West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.