Officials monitoring the movement of the apples from upper Shimla areas, Kullu and Mandi, claim that more than 47 lakh apple boxes had already been sent to the outside market. The total production this year was expected to be more than 1.50 crore boxes. Nearly 500 apple-laden trucks have been landing daily from Shimla areas alone.

The market, which had crashed last month and continued to remain so till mid-August, had improved and growers are getting Rs 450 and above per box for quality apples. The procurement being done through HPMC and HIMFED had also been going on smoothly.

``Around 6,300 metric tonnes of apples have already been lifted from the procurement centres,'' Horticulture Minister Narinder Bragta said.

According to Bragta, there had been no shortage of apple boxes and trucks. Over one crore apple boxes, wooden boxes as well as cartons, had already been supplied to the growers. Former CM Ram Lal Thakur, also confirms that arrangements made by the government had so far been quite satisfactory and there was no shortage of trucks and apple boxes in the area.

``Although the fruit remains under-sized in many areas, some signs of improvement have been noticed at higher elevations,'' Thakur told ENS.

It was because of the market crash, the apple growers had slowed down their plucking and packaging works. This helped in stabilisation of the market after the temporary crisis. The growers also admit their own fault in marketing under-ripe fruit in their greed for good returns before the season had actually started.

``The situation has now changed for the better and is likely to remain so for the next few weeks in case movement is regulated properly,'' P S Chauhan, grower from Kotgarh area feels.

Last week, the threat given by the truck operators unions to go on an indefinite strike was the cause of worry among the growers but the horticulture minister said:``We were prepared for that too It is good that situation the situation was averted.''

The problem of disposal of 1,000 metric tonnes of apple juice concentrate still continues to exist despite the fact that the minister had made serious efforts to make the railways agree to lift some stock. The price of the stock was estimated at Rs 5 crore. In case the government fails to clear the stock it would be impossible for the HPMC to create additional storage for 7,000 metric tonne of fresh apple juice concentrate.

Though Bragta was worried about the situation, he was confident of finding some way out to clear the stock and provide additional storage space.