Fruitful Marketing of Kinnow Fruit: Some Scientific Tips 

By G.S. Romana 

and Raj Kumar

Kinnow is an important fruit crop in Punjab. During 2021-22, the total area under fruits in the state was 96.7 thousand hectares and the production was 2042 thousand tonnes, of which now occupied the top position as about 48 percent area (46.8 thousand hectares and 58 percent production (1254.6 thousand tonnes) of fruits was from kinnow alone. The marketing of this leader fruit is a matter of concern. Like other horticultural crops, kinnow also gets damaged at the post-harvest and handling stage. It cannot be kept for a longer time period due to its perishable nature. Marketing of kinnow is a complex problem due to its short post-harvest life. Most of the kinnow growers market their produce on a contract basis. There are very few farmers who go to the market and sell their products themselves. That is why the share of farmers in profit remains less. Apart from this, the fruit does not fetch a remunerative price in the market due to the lack of awareness to enhance the quality of kinnow at the farm level. The farmers can multiply their current profits by adopting the scientific tips given by the Punjab Agricultural University to improve the quality of kinnow in the field and sell it at higher prices in domestic or distant markets.

Marketing problems of kinnow 

1. is a lack of cold storage facilities in the state. Presently, the cold storage facilities are mainly for potato crops. Farmers cannot store their kinnow fruit to avail better future prices.

2. The lack of processing facilities to add to the post-harvest value of kinnow fruit is another problem. Further, the seasonality of fruits makes the processing facilities unviable due to very low-capacity utilization.

3. Lack of market infrastructure which results in high post-harvest losses. Even an aspect has been captured by retailers. The number of farmer participants is meager.

4. There is virtually no separate marketing structure for kinnow due to which the post-harvest losses are high. The Apni Mandi aspect is also not working much because even here, due to the lack of farmers, the retailers get occupied.

5. Lack of unity and organization skills among the farming community, which proves a major impediment in the formation of cluster groups and co-operatives especially for the small and medium farmers to avail the better prices of distant markets.

6. Pre-ponderance of intermediaries in the marketing channel results in unfair and exploitative practices in the marketing of fresh produce which erodes the farmer's profit.

7. Lack of knowledge of production and post-production operations leads to damage to the external appearance and quality of fruit which hinders fetching better prices. 

8. Improper pre- and post-harvest handling without any sound packaging leads to heavy losses of the produce at the time when it reaches the final destination.

Tips for profitable marketing

Though there exist lots of problems in the marketing of kinnow still a better market price for kinnow can be availed following scientific tips:

1. The quality of the fruit must be maintained during production through timely training, pruning, light irrigation by a drip system, fertigation, minimum intercultural of the kinnow field, and plant protection as per the Punjab Agricultural University recommendation. Accordingly, by preventing insects and diseases, we can maintain the quality of kinnow.

2. The post-harvest practices to improve the quality of kinnow include soft harvesting to minimize mechanical injury to fruit, cleaning, washing, drying, waxing, grading, and final packing in corrugated fiberboard boxes specially designed for this purpose.

3. The kinnow graders and know wax plants being run by the state government can be used to add to the post-harvest value of know fruit.

4. Regular market vigilant checks to get accurate information about domestic and distant market prices. The help of different information media like social media, WhatsApp, Facebook, the internet, websites, newspapers, etc. can be taken in this regard.

5. The liaison can be established with the concerned department to take advantage of horticulture-related schemes like National Horticulture Mission.

6. Farmers can also get help from the government by forming small self-help groups or cooperative marketing organizations for selling fruits in distant markets. About 53 different cities of this country with a population of more than 10 lakhs can be accessed for the marketing of kinnow.

7. The export of fruits can also be facilitated by creating groups/cooperatives than trying alone.

8. The contract farming program in this regard may be started by the state government.

9. There is an urgent need to establish large-scale processing plants in know growing areas so as to provide higher and stabilized prices to the growers. 

10. Further, setting up of kinnow grading and waxing plants in the producing areas would enhance the shelf-life of the product and would help the farmers to take their produce to distant markets for better prices without incurring any heavy cost.

11. The Punjab government may fix a minimum support price (MSP) for kinnow as has been fixed by the Government of Himachal Pradesh for apple to assure comparable margins from kinnow fruit as its cultivation has been identified as one of the best alternatives to the existing paddy-wheat cropping system.

Thus, with little effort during production, processing, and marketing, kinnow cultivation can be made really a profitable enterprise for the farmers.