PESHAWAR, Dec 28: The fresh fruit dealers and shopkeepers of the Frontier are all set to earn huge profits from the locally-produced orange, owing to bumper produce this year. The orange, which, the doctors say, is the richest source of vitamin C, has also a delicious taste, equally liked by the old and young alike due to its sweetness.
Some 400 orchards in the NWFP supply the commodity to the markets from where it reaches the small and big outlets to be purchased by the people. The prices of oranges range between Rs12 and Rs36 per dozen depending on its quality. The local vendors have also switched to exclusively selling oranges with sweet taste and the markets in Peshawar and elsewhere in the city are overflowing with the commodity.
In the last few years, the number of orchards of oranges in the province has increased by leaps and bounds as it is a cash fruit.
The districts of Mardan, Haripur, Dir, Malakand, Dera Ismail Khan and Swabi have been the main producers of oranges.
To establish a small orchard requires at least 100 acres of land where the plants are cultivated at a distance of 20 feet from each other and the trees start giving fruits in a span of five years.
According to the orchards’ owners, they go through hard times to look after their plants. They need weeding, watering, fertilisers and pesticide spray for which they invest a big chunk of money. Then, they say the plants are totally dependent on the soil and climatic conditions, where low-rain help the plant to give more and delicious kind of fruit. The winds, however, adversely affect the produce, because most of the fruit is lost owing to the blowing winds in flowery season.
It cannot be grown in cold areas and requires a frost-free regions. Therefore, the orange coming from Dargai village in Mardan district is being sold at higher prices than those from other areas, because the climatic conditions there are highly conducive for growing orange.
Some 150 privately established nurseries near Agricultural Training Centre, Turnab, are supplying the plants to all parts of the province. Given the market value of the orange fruit, new orchards are being established in the low-raining areas.
The plant gives fruit once a year and remain in the markets for two months — December and January. One can find it even in February which is kept in the cold storages by the fruit dealers, obviously to sell them at higher rates as compared to their prices in normal season.
The local orchards also produce a bigger-sized round grapefruit which is only used by the patients suffering from diabetes.
A round citrus fruit with thick bright and reddish yellow skin and a lot of sweet juice is also produced in Punjab, mainly in Sargodha. But the one produced in the NWFP is considered as of the best quality, despite its higher prices. The reason as to why it was being transported to the NWFP markets was that Punjab had biggest orchards which could not consume their own produce alone. Secondly, the NWFP had great consumption than the production and the people also felt comfortable to buy the low-priced orange from Punjab.
There is another kind of citrus fruit with a loose skin, Kino, but the markets are always captured by the orange with sweet taste. The people in rural areas have also developed a sort of betting habit over the inside colour of sweet orange. Two betters cut their respective oranges with knives and are shown to those present there who act as judges.
