JKHMPC apple juice plant in Sopore lies half-functioning
Danish Tariq
Established in 1985, the apple juice concentrate plant in Doabgah area of Sopore in Baramulla district is lying idle from last five years owing to negligence of Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (JKHMPC) officials, locals and fruit growers are in loss as the juice plant was better revenue option for locals, juice plant has capacity of producing 10,000 metric tons juice a year, which has a market value around 40 Crore.
Mohammad Umar, local resident said, the officials have turned blind eye toward the juice plant as it has been lying functionless since 2013 even as machinery including filtration unit worth crores “before 2013 juice plant was operating smoothly and was producing tons of apple juice every year, with earning crores of rupees,” he added It would function 24 hours during season but now the juice plant is lying defunct due to official negligence
Mohammad Ayub, Fruit grower said, every year we throw away the leftover apples from our orchards as the juice plant has remained non-functional “we were used to supply those leftover apples to this concentrate plant for juice production now we throw them away as the plant lying non-functional,” he added the corporation was making good profits and we would also get our shares but the juice plant is not functioning that is loss for both.
In the initial years the plant was running successfully and producing apple juice of fine quality in an affordable price, the juice plant was run by Cadbury India but later the juice plant was taken over by Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (JKHMPC)
Nisar Andrabi, Deputy Managing Director JKHMPC, due to lack of funds the juice plant was not functioning properly from last few years, now from this year hopefully the juice plant will be made functional in full capacity, officials have given top priority to make juice plant functional there was on going some upgradation of plant in the next two months and once upgradation work will be completed it will be made functional.
