PUNE: The supply of apples from Kashmir in the Pune Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) market has normalized, wholesalers told TOI on Friday. Over the last month, Kashmiri farmers supplying the apples to Pune APMC had been restricting the supply after a commission agent in the market had stopped payment to one of them.The farmer had approached the Pune APMC authorities for redressal of his grievances. The authorities intervened and resolved the issue. The wholesalers said that the issue had started to restrict the supply of these apples as farmers from Kashmir had begun to look at Pune wholesalers with ‘distrust’.An APMC source said the commission agent owed Rs4.89 lakh to the farmer. “After the incident, other wholesalers getting Kashmir apples were also being looked at with distrust, which was affecting supplies in the market even though the rest had continued to make timely payments for the produce,” he said. The source said that this led to a shortage of the produce. After an intervention by APMC authorities, the issue was amicably resolved, the source said.BJ Deshmukh, administrator of APMC, Pune, said, “A commission agent had not given the amount due to a Kashmir farmer for the produce he had bought. The farmer approached us for redressal of the complaint. The agent was apparently in financial distress and thus could not pay the sum.”Deshmukh added that a meeting was convened with the commission agent where it was decided to take possession of his shop if he failed to pay the amount due to the farmer. The agent then paid up the amount. Deshmukh said that the amount has already been credited to APMC and handed over to the farmer.Around 50% of apples in the APMC market come from Kashmir and Shimla, while the rest come from Washington, Turkey, Egypt and Iran.

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