Srinagar, Jul 17: Singapore wants more. Two days after cherries and plums grown in the orchards of Shopian and Pulwama landed in the island nation for the first time, Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, posted on X, asking for a bigger share of Kashmir’s fruit basket.
“Following litchis and mangoes, Singapore is finally getting its first taste of cherries and plums from Jammu and Kashmir. We want more,” Wong wrote, thanking APEDA and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for facilitating the export.
The Singapore shipment of Areko cherries and Scentrose plums, sourced from Shopian and Pulwama, went out on Thursday, less than two weeks after a similar consignment flew out of Srinagar for Abu Dhabi and Dubai on July 4, the first time such produce had been exported from here to the UAE.
Sehreena Maqbool, Regional Head, APEDA, said the authority set up its office here in 2021 and now runs regional offices in Srinagar, Jammu and Ladakh, having facilitated shipments ranging from exotic vegetables and apricots to apples and blackberries sent to Saudi Arabia last year, with the UAE and Gulf countries as the initial focus.
Maqbool said APEDA had also sent a sample consignment of Mushkbudji rice, an aromatic variety grown in Kashmir, to Japan in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture. “The Director of Agriculture, Kashmir, gave full support,” she said, adding that work was now on to turn the sample shipment into a commercial one.
On the July 4 flight to the UAE, Maqbool said the fruit was sourced entirely from Shopian, an outreach effort meant to show farmers at the grassroots level that the authority works directly with them. She said the initiative followed directions from APEDA Chairman Abhishek Dev to focus on Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and grassroots engagement.
Dev, in a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry after the July 4 shipment, said Jammu and Kashmir “has emerged as an important hub for premium horticultural produce with immense export potential,” and that APEDA remained committed to facilitating market access for farmers through export promotion, quality enhancement and global buyer outreach.
Ms Maqbool said the cherries and Santarosa plums sent to the UAE were a first-of-their-kind shipment given how perishable the produce is, and that a proper cold-chain protocol, moving fruit in refrigerated vans directly into cold storage at the destination, would help as the trade scales up.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, in a post on X, said, “A new flight from the orchards of Jammu and Kashmir to global markets! The first export consignment of premium Areko cherries and Scentrose plums from Shopian and Pulwama has left for Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This achievement strengthens the global recognition of Indian fruit and brings new opportunities for Jammu and Kashmir’s horticulture sector.”
