Anantapur bananas heading for Middle East markets

 Anantapur: Rich quality Banana from Anantapur would reach the markets in the Middle East region, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Bahrain soon.

A special train with 34 bogies of banana was flagged off at Tadipathri railway station in this district on Friday. About 680 metric tonnes of the top grade G-9 variety procured from farmers by a private agency would first reach Mumbai port.

Private agency Srikrishna Impex Ventures that collected the produce in bulk will ship this to Saudi and other countries from Mumbai.

Though fruits like apple are not grown in Anantapur due to a lack of cold climate, the region is known as the fruit bowl of AP. It produces more than 24 varieties of fruits of high quality because of its special soil conditions.

Principal secretary to agriculture and marketing B Rajasekhar and horticulture and sericulture director K Sreenivasulu, in virtual mode, flagged off the train from Vijayawada.

Anantapur Collector Vinod Kumar, MP Ambika Lakshmi Narayana, Tadipathri municipal chairman JC Prabhakar Reddy and others were present at the Tadipathri railway station to see off the huge consignment.

Bananas from Anantapur district had been sent to Saudi Arabia in 2018, when 12 to 15 thousand metric tonnes were exported by a Delhi-based agency. This time, the Sri Krishna Impex Venture came forward to procure and transport bananas by offering farmers Rs 27,000 a tonne.

The farmers will get this money directly credited to their accounts with no role for middlemen, stated collector Vinod. He said farmers would get more benefits for the produce as international markets are opening up for them.

High quality bananas from Anantapur region have huge demand abroad.

The horticulture department said a total of 27,170 acres of banana orchards existed in Anantapur district and the G-9 variety is majorly cultivated in the region. Some 5.97 lakh metric tonnes of banana is expected for the harvest this season.