It’s summer and the demand for the season’s most sought-after fruit is only rising as the mercury level heads northwards.
The rise in demand is followed by a steady increase in prices, much to the joy of the growers. But the quality has proved to be a casualty.
Vijayapura district, known as the lemon capital, is seeing four fruits of the larger size selling at Rs 20 and six fruits of the smaller size selling at Rs 40.
A 40-kg bag of 1,100 lemons is now selling at Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000, up from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 in the previous years.
The APMC market in Vijayapura gets 2,500 to 3,000 such bags every Wednesday and Sunday, manager of the market Ramesh Gouda told DH.
This is a dip in supply as compared to previous years.
The quality of the lemon coming to the market is of sub-standard quality, say buyers.
“Inclement weather caused a reduction in the yield of the crop, to 10 tonnes per acre, besides affecting the quality,” Santosh Sappandi, manager of the Karnataka State Lemon Development Board, told DH.
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