The decision of the Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) to rent its assets like controlled atmosphere (CA) stores and grading and packing lines has not gone down well with apple growers.
They have termed the corporation’s decision as anti-fruit growers that will lead to monopoly of private players in the sector and increase in the storage and grading and packing costs for growers.
“The private players will be concerned about maximizing their profits not the welfare of the growers.
If there’s no provision for capping the prices of services at these facilities, it will lead to an overall increase in the storage and grading and packing costs,” said Lokinder Bisht, president of the Progressive Growers Association.
Sohan Thakur, president of the Seb Utpadak Sangh, questioned the corporation’s haste in renting these facilities to private players.
“Most of these facilities have become operational only over the past couple of years. Instead of renting these facilities to private parties, why can’t the HPMC make efforts to make these sustainable?” he asked.
He said, “Also, why build these facilities using public money if these are to be handed over to private players? Most of these facilities have been built or upgraded with funds from the World Bank-aided Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development Project.”
Some growers are also questioning why the HPMC’s facilities remain underutilized, while the facilities of the private players are doing a brisk business.
“The HPMC needs to have smaller chambers to let small growers use its CA stores. Also, it should keep the prices competitive and aggressively market its facilities to ensure their optimum utilisation,” said Harish Chauhan, president of the Fruit, Vegetable and Flowers Growers Association.
Chauhan said that the decision to rent the state-of-the-art grading and packing lines was perplexing. “The HPMC has the best grading and packing lines.
Private individuals running grading and packing facilities are earning good money, so why can’t the HPMC make profit despite having state-of-the-art equipment?” he added.
Meanwhile, Bisht said that the HPMC was limiting its role instead of widening its net to help the growers market their produce and get remunerative prices, the key objective of the corporation.
“The HPMC has no presence in the mandis to help the growers get remunerative prices. Now, it’s relinquishing its CA stores and grading and packing lines.
If it intends to offer little services to the growers and focus solely on profit-making, as is evident from the decision to rent it assets, it is better that the corporation is disbanded,” he added.
Underutilised facilities rented
The underutilisation of CA stores and grading and packing lines is the reason behind the HPMC renting these facilities to private parties
Over the past few years, only 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the HPMC storage capacity was used
We want our storage capacity to be used optimally, says Sudesh Mokhta, Managing Director, HPMC
He says that as for the growers’ fears that the storage and grading and packing costs will escalate, the rates ae unlikely to vary from prevailing charges
