After years, locals enjoy cheap guavas

ALLAHABAD: Demonetisation hasn't hit just the Lal surkha this guava season. Following abundant rainfall this monsoon season, there is a bumper crop this year. Be it Lal surkha or its hybrid, Kg or Safeda, orchards are laden with ripe fruit and the same is being brought to Mundera mandi.
The mandi, is the hub of all agro-commercial activities of the district, is receiving truckloads of high quality guava, only to sell it at nominal prices.
"Till last year, when the produce wasn't even this good, we easily sold each carat (the plastic box) for around Rs 400 which is being sold at Rs 80-100 this year," said Iftekar Ahmad, a farmer of Mandirmode, a village near Manauri.
He said every year, he sells his produce in advance to a local farmer. "The local farmer purchased the produce for Rs 35,000, hoping to make a big profit this year. But after giving the initial amount of Rs 5,000 as advance, he is suffering loss for want of buyers," he said.
Demonetisation has affected the export of the fruit from the two districts of Allahabad and Kaushambi. "We just don't have the money to pay the transporter, adhtiya (middleman) or send our own truck. We aren't left with a choice but to carry our produce to the mandi and sell it at whatever price we get," said Rinku Maurya, another farmer.
"Earlier, our produce was exported to Pakistan, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal and Punjab but this year, there is hardly any business," he said.
However, low price of guava has ensured that locals have their fill. "Every fruit-seller has good quality guava which was hard to get till last year. The rate was never below Rs 60 per kilo and that too for low quality fruit. Now, we are getting very good quality fruit at Rs 20 per kg,"said Anupama Dubey Tandon, a housewife.