A sour story for lemon farmers of Gudur region
Tirupati: Farmers in Gudur region are distressed over the sharp fall in lemon prices over the past week. Once selling at Rs 25 and Rs 35 per kg, lemon prices have crashed to as little as Rs 10 and Rs 20, leaving farmers struggling to cover their production costs.
The sudden drop in lemon prices is because of an oversupply of the produce. With orchards yielding a bumper crop, farmers are rushing their produce to markets to avoid falling of lemons from trees and then rotting. The rise in supply has overwhelmed the demand, forcing traders to quote lower rates.
Srinivas Reddy, a farmer from Chillakur mandal, expressed his distress: “We are forced to sell lemons at just Rs 15 per kg while our expenses for labour and transportation exceed ₹18. After all the hard work, we are left with nothing.”
The situation has further worsened by poor demand in colder regions like Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Winter has brought down lemon consumption while dense fog in northern states has disrupted transportation and market activities. These factors have compounded the challenges for farmers.
“Earlier, we could rely on northern markets to absorb the surplus, but now demand has fallen sharply,” said Rama Krishna, a farmer from Balayapalle mandal. “Even green lemons, which fetched higher prices, are not helping us to recover our costs. We feel helpless.”
While green lemons sell at Rs 30 per kg due to their suitability for storage in places like Pune and Gujarat, ripened lemons, which cannot be stored for long, are fetching abysmally low prices. Additionally, the cost of transportation to distant markets is eating into the already thin margins.
Farmers across Gudur, Balayapalle, Venkatagiri, and neighbouring mandals have voiced their concerns, urging authorities to step in. They are demanding support in the form of subsidies, cold storage facilities, or minimum support prices to prevent further losses.
Traders believe that the current slump in prices may persist for another two weeks unless there is a significant shift in demand. Until then, farmers will continue to face mounting losses and an uncertain future.
