Following the successful export of Khasi mandarin last year, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of Meghalaya, and Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA) have recently facilitated market linkages of over 1.3 tonnes of Pineapples to the Middle East.

This is part of the continued efforts to reduce the gulf between the farmers of the state and lucrative international markets. The pineapples from Meghalaya are being sold across malls in Dubai, Kuwait, and Sharjah, but more importantly, the farmers are enjoying the fruit of their labor with up to 2 times an increase in price realization from these trades.

The efforts closer home have resulted in sustained market linkages with domestic processors and retailers. Last year, over 40 tonnes of pineapples were shipped to a Karnataka-based processor to be further exported to European and North American markets.

This year, the same processor has established a mobile processing unit at Umdihar IVCS, in Umdihar Village (Ri Bhoi) for taking in larger quantities and over 23 tonnes of Pineapples have been processed by the unit in the first week of its operation.

The processing units require pineapples weighing a kilogram and above and don’t accept fruits of smaller sizes. During harvest season, entire fields are harvested for sale, but only the large pineapples (Grade A) get sold to the processing units.

This leaves the farmers with a large quantity of smaller-sized pineapples (Grade B aka table variety). Since the ripening accelerates

post-harvest, these table-variety pineapples are often sold at throw-away prices.

To mitigate distressed sales of these table-variety pineapples, the department is actively exploring market linkages with local retailers and has recently established linkages with Reliance Retail stores across Guwahati for the sale of table-variety pineapples from Meghalaya. As a result of this intervention, the farmers are now able to get over 2 times the price for the table-variety pineapples.

The Meghalaya pineapples are famous for their high-sugar content (brix value of 16-18) and low sourness. The pineapples in the State are mostly cultivated without any use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in significantly lower heavy metal and pesticide residue in the fruit.

These traits make them highly suitable for lucrative international and national markets. However, for a long time, the trade has been dominated by middlemen and traders who often ‘book bagaans’ (farm fields) months before harvest season by paying the farmers a lump sum amount.

The farmers, having poor access to market information and needing money before the festive season and onset of the school semester, unwillingly ‘book’ their farms at a fraction of the cost of the fruits on their farm.