Sweet Orange Marketing and Processing

Citrus is the third most important tropical fruit crop of India after mango and banana with 5996.9 thousand metric tonnes production. The most important Citrus growing states in India are Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat and Uttarakhand. Kumaon region is one of the major Citrus growing regions of Uttarakhand with the maximum production of about 51.37 percent (64195 metric tonnes) of the total Citrus production in state in the year 2006-07. Almora districts marks itself distinctly in production of Citrus species, with a production of 59.03 percent (33022) metric tonnes of the total Citrus production in Kumaon region in the year 2006-07. Sweet orange is the major Citrus species of this district comprising of 40 percent of total Citrus species production in the district. Being an important crop, sweet orange growers are still not getting benefited and they face innumerable hardships, the major reason being the loopholes in the marketing system. So it is important to have an efficient marketing system, so that the producers get appropriate returns for their produce and consumers get them at reasonable price. There is also a severe need to integrate it with the processing.