Himachali youths go online to bag direct orders for apples from family orchards

Pune: An increasing number of youth in Himachal Pradesh and other apple-growing regions in the country are logging online to help their farmer-parents sell their produce.
This transformation from offline to online selling aims to give the producers a fair price for the hard work that goes into growing, harvesting and distributing apples.
Thirty-year-old Aprajita Bansal, who hails from the Karsog region of Himachal Pradesh, has been helping her parents sell apples directly to customers across India.Her family orchard produces three varieties of the fruit.
"The prices that farmers get in the mandi are meagre compared to the selling price of apples at the retail market. I have been working on developing an online customer base for the last four years. This year, my target is to sell the entire farm produce online," she said.
Some produce, however, got infested with scales, forcing Bansal to cancel a few orders for the super-chief apples at the last moment.
Bansal, a third-generation farmer, now runs a company — Phal Phool — through which she sells apples and native seeds from her farm.
Apple farmers, along with a good selling price, are also facing weather-related challenges for the last two years.
In 2023, the region faced severe rainfall, leaving many trees damaged. This year, a drought in the region has resulted in irrigation-related challenges for farmers. Owing to the fluctuating climatic conditions, many apple farmers said the yield is down to half and one-third compared to 2020.
Himanshu Khagta, who hails from Jubbal, started selling apples with his business partner Pranav Rawat during the pandemic through their brand, From Shimla.
"We practice regenerative, chemical-free farming. We are trying to grow a variety of apples and are also working on educating people about the different varieties available in the market," said Khagta, a marketer by profession whose family owns a small apple orchard.
Khagta plans to reduce the dependence on sales from mandis and diversify the customer base across the country.
But selling online comes with its own set of challenges.
Many of these sellers are facing packaging and logistical issues because there is always a chance that the fruit will get damaged in transit if not packaged properly.
Apple farmers said the delivery system in India is not made for perishable items, and many are forced to use non-environment-friendly foam nets for fruits to ensure they reach customers in good condition.
Pranjali Kulkarni, a resident of Baner, ordered a 5kg box of ‘red delicious' apples last week directly from a farm. "The taste of the apples is totally different from the store-bought ones. I think many apples available in the market are extracted from cold storage, so they are tasteless," she said.
Rohal-based Rohit Bansha and his wife, Shiwani Thakur, started selling apples online from their farm, KNK Orchards, last year.
"We sold 150-200 boxes last year. We took orders primarily over WhatsApp. The season has just started this year, and are hoping to grow direct-to-customer sales," said Bansha, who is a mechanical engineer by profession.