Foreign fruits invade Indian markets during off-season

COIMBATORE: It's not just the gadget market that is flooded with imports. With advanced technology and improved preservation, fresh produce is being increasingly imported during off season. The result is that the our fruit basket is increasingly acquiring a foreign presence.
Apples dominate the fruit imports, followed by pears, oranges, lychees, peaches and dragon fruits.Apples mainly come from China, followed by Australia and America and Italy. Oranges come from Egypt, lychee, peaches, and dragon fruits from Thailand and strawberries from Sri Lanka.
The import of fruits has nothing to do with taste or customer preference. They are mostly imported during off-season to give customers the opportunity to consume any fruit even during off-season. "These fruits are packed well and have a long shelf life. Thus, they are imported during our off-season," said Vijay Rathinam the proprietor of the Pazhamudir Nilayam branch at Ganapathy.
The season for Indian apples is between July and February, after which imports are available in the markets. Similar is the case with other fruits which are imported during off-season. Like customers, shop-owners too are not complaining.
Unlike Indian fruits which are transported in open trucks causing substantial damage by the time it gets to the shop, the imports are packed and stored well. They generally come in multi layered cardboard boxes. The fruits are individually covered with thermocol or some other material which curbs the damage. Materials like wax is applied over the fruits, but traders say that they are checked at accredited laboratories before releasing them to the Indian markets. The imported fruits also have a longer shelf life.
Traders say that if there were better facilities in India, the domestic fruit will be better received in the market. N Babu, the proprietor of NM Fruits, a wholesale fruit shop at Ukkadam says that while at least 20 to 40 percent of the Indian fruit is damaged, the damage to imports is negligible. In fact, studies have indicated that 40% of fruits harvested in India go waste, rotting or getting damaged in transit.
Customers however, seem to be indifferent to where the fruit comes from. G Rasheed, who has been buying apples from a fruit shop at Red Fields near Puliakulam says that they are not spectacular in taste, but he buys them since nothing else is available.