Corrugated box makers in lurch as Himachal Govt switches over to plastic trays

Tribune News Service

Solan, July 11

With the state government switching over to plastic trays for packaging of apples on a trial basis, corrugated box manufacturers are facing huge losses.

There are 250-odd corrugated box manufacturing units in Himachal. They have barely received 10 per cent orders for apple cartons, informed Surinder Jain, president, HP Corrugated Box Manufacturers Association.

About four crore apple boxes of about 20 kg each are used in the state if the production is good. With adverse weather conditions such as hailstones and disease striking the apple belt, the fruit production is slated to be lesser this year.

The Himachal Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board has approved use of plastic crates for transporting apples in select markets yards in Shimla district. Though the move is aimed at bringing down the input cost, growers were raising issues of sudden price hike of plastic crates.

“The state government had introduced the corrugated boxes several years ago. This had prompted investors to open tiny, small scale units for manufacturing these boxes. Now the sudden change at a time when the pandemic was looming, has deprived us of the business,” informed a carton manufacturer.

While some units were fully dependent on apple packaging business many others executed 20 to 30 per cent of their business in apple packaging. “I used to earn about Rs 2 lakh annually from apple packaging cartons every year but this year there was barely any demand,” quipped a manufacturer from Baddi.

Though plastic is not an environment-friendly option and globally its dependence was being reduced the switching over to plastic trays was not considered a good option. “Large-scale skilled migratory labour from various states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Delhi, Gujarat, etc., who used to come every year for grading and packaging in the apple belt, will lose their livelihood as filling apples in plastic crates requires no skill. Grading of apples through machines will also be hit,” informed Govind, an apple grower from Kotkhai in Shimla district.