Newspapers shunned for fear of corona, now hard to find for packing apples

Newspapers shunned for fear of corona, now hard to find for packing apples

Shopian: The dearth of scrap newsprint this year has forced apple growers to purchase it at a higher cost, with many saying that it has become a financial burden on them.
Scrap newsprint is used, along with paddy husk, in both wooden crates and cardboard boxes to save the packed apples from bruises. Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Kashmir this March, most newspapers in the valley have suspended or curtailed print editions, while the import of newspapers from outside the region has also been much reduced.
The dearth has led to a jump of 40 percent in the cost of scrap newsprint. In the apple harvest season, growers are frantically looking for it in the markets and many are even visiting scrap dealers in other districts.
Sameer Ahmad, an apple grower in Shopian, said that since the month of March, almost all newspaper organisations have stopped print editions as people feared that newspapers may transmit the coronavirus. A prolonged lockdown across JK and in other states also stopped supplies of scrap newsprint, he said.
The scrap newsprint comes handy in separating layers of fruits in the boxes and saves the fruit from getting bruised, as injuries on the surface result in decay of the whole fruit.
“After searching at many shops, we bought the scrap newsprint at 40 percent higher rates than last year,” said Ishtiyaq Ahmad, a grower from Shopian.
Another grower said that last year, one 50-kilogram pack of scrap newsprint was being sold at Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200, but this year it is being sold between Rs 1,800 and Rs 2,000.
According to rough estimates, millions of kilograms of scrap newsprint is consumed in packing apples every year in Kashmir.

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