Srinagar: Kashmir’s famed apple industry, long regarded as the backbone of the valley’s rural economy, is enduring one of its worst seasons in more than a decade.

According to apple growers and traders, prices have crashed by nearly 70 per cent and demand has collapsed across the country’s wholesale markets, leaving growers from Sopore to Shopian in despair.

“In my entire life, I have never seen the demand for Kashmiri apples so low,” said Bashir Ahmad Basheer, president of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers Cum Dealers Union. “Growers are not even recovering what they spend on producing and packing the fruit. Rates have fallen by at least 70 per cent compared to last year. The entire industry is bleeding.”

In Pulwama, orchardist Bilal Ahmad Lone said he sold a box of apples for Rs 1,200–

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