YSR Kadapa fruit market Photo: Frank van Dijk · Pexels License · source ↗

YSR Kadapa fruit market

The YSR Kadapa fruit market (Kadapa Agricultural Market Yard) at Kadapa town is the principal price-discovery and aggregation hub for fruit produced in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. Operating as a notified APMC market under the Andhra Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board, the yard handles sweet orange (Sathgudi/Mosambi), banana, papaya, sapota, custard apple and seasonal mango arrivals from the YSR Kadapa, Annamayya, Sri Sathya Sai and Anantapur districts. The Pulivendula sub-yard and the Rayachoti fruit market are the other satellite nodes in the same cluster.

Overview

The Kadapa fruit market handles approximately 200-500 tonnes per day of mixed fruit during peak season (October-February for sweet orange, April-July for mango, year-round for banana and papaya). The yard is the principal channel for Sathgudi (Mosambi) sweet orange produced in the Pulivendula-Vempalle-Rayachoti citrus belt (YSR Kadapa Citrus Belt). Banana arrivals are mostly Grand Naine (Banana G9 Tissue Culture) from the Pulivendula-Mylavaram-Vempalle ribbon of irrigated farms. Buyers include wholesale traders supplying Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai markets, juice processors and pulp units in Tirupati and Bengaluru, and a growing number of inter-state cargo agents servicing the export-grade banana trade.

Eligibility

Cultivators bringing fruit to the yard need no licence; sale is mediated by licensed traders and commission agents (Commission Agent Arthiya). Traders, weighmen, hammala (loaders), reefer-van operators and ancillary service providers operate under APMC licences issued by the state marketing board. Direct procurement by FPOs and exporters is permitted under the AP Direct Marketing Reforms.

Benefit and structure

Regulator: Andhra Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board / Kadapa APMC
Trade volume: peak daily 200-500 t mixed fruit; annual through-put roughly 1.0-1.5 lakh t
Commodities and seasonality:
Sweet orange (Sathgudi/Mosambi) - October to February (Ambe bahar harvest)
Banana (G9, Karpura, Karpura Sugandham) - year-round, peak November-March
Papaya - year-round, peak February-May
Mango (Banganapalle, Totapuri, Alphonso) - April-July
Sapota and custard apple - October-January
Auctions: open-cry by licensed commission agents; eNAM trading available for grade-standardised lots
Quality issues: high in-transit losses for unrefrigerated long-haul to Mumbai-Delhi; lack of grading line at most aggregation points

Implementation

The Market Committee operates auction sheds, pack-house facilities, weighing platforms and reefer-van loading docks. Pre-cooling and grading at modest pack-houses (Cold Storage and Pack House) is available for export-grade lots. Logistics tie-up with reefer-van operators and railway parcel agents is increasingly important for Mosambi and banana shipments out of Kadapa town. Daily reference prices are reported to Agmarknet and feed inter-state produce logistics (Inter State Produce Logistics).

Adoption context

YSR Kadapa fruit market is the dominant marketing channel for orchard farmers in the Pulivendula, Vempalle, Mylavaram and Rayachoti belts. Banana cultivation in particular has grown rapidly in the past decade on the back of YSR HU extension, drip irrigation subsidy and the Kadapa-Pulivendula reefer-van linkage to Mumbai-Delhi markets. Sathgudi auctions during the October-December glut still suffer from oversupply and price crashes; the AP State Horticulture Mission (AP Hortmission State Mission) has promoted pulp-and-juice processing units and cold-storage capacity to smooth realisation.

Sources

Kadapa Agricultural Market Yard. AP State Agricultural Marketing Board.
Kadapa fruit and vegetable prices. Agmarknet.
District Horticulture Profile - YSR Kadapa. Dr YSR Horticultural University.