After Kellogs Cornflakes and Dominoes Cookies, it is the turn of foreign apples to grace your break-fast table. Shipped from the US or New Zealand to Mumbai, unloaded at Vashi Market, truck loads of boxes, worth Rs 1,550 each, and containing 113 apples per box, come by road to Market Yard, or fruit merchants arrange their own transport to pick their choice at Mumbai and transport it to Pune daily, or every two days.

Yogesh Desai of Desai and Company in Deccan, who has sold about 55 kilos of these apples every day since the last 15 days, is now transporting stocks to Solapur, Hyderabad and Bangalore. ``The consumer response is far greater than my expectations. Shoppers are returning again and again to buy these apples, without bargaining, since their superior quality and taste is obvious,'' he says.

Yet, do you realise that the shiny, juicy ``Red Delicious,'' worth twenty bucks is actually almost one year old, just look at the dates on the cartons. And the paler, softer, frozen Kashmiri counter-part that is struggling at Rs 70 a kilo, is only two or three months old, unlike its smarter videshi version which is raking in at least Rs 10,000 for Pune's fruit merchants every day, since almost one month.

``Shoppers are getting duped by the colour and taste of the imported apples,'' admits Abbas Bagwan, owner stall number 44, Shivaji Market, though these very apples make him richer by 10 grand at the end of the day. ``Red Delicious' and ``Golden Delicious'' apples are devoid of any nutrients, they only look good.''

The unbranded Kashmiri apples carry no fancy stickers and look pretty battered, but Abbas says they are organically grown, and richer in nutrients. He advises patients of diabetes and older people to go in for them.