Support price for fruits raised in HP

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh government on Wednesday announced increasing the procurement price of apple, mango and citrus fruits by 0.50 paise per kg.

The decision has been taken as part of market intervention scheme for these fruits to provide good procurement price to the farmers and preventing their exploitation by the middle men, horticulture minister Singhi Ram said in a statement.

Under the scheme, the procurement price for apple would be Rs 4.75 per kg which was Rs 4.25 per kg last year, he said.

For mango seedling it would be Rs 4.08 per kg which was Rs 3.58 earlier and for mango it would be Rs 4.75 per kg against previous procurement price of Rs 4.25, The minister added.

He said the procurement price for citrus fruits like kinnow/malta/sangtra grade 'b' would be Rs 5.35 per kg as it was Rs 4.85 per kg previously.

For galgal for all grades, it would be Rs 3.65 per kg against previous price of Rs 3.15, Himachal Pradesh horticlture minister said.

He said in view of the decision of the government, the annual additional burden on the state exchequer would be Rs 2.50 crore approximately.