A kilo of apples can cost ₹80 in September and ₹220 by January, even in a year when India produces a record crop.
Jammu and Kashmir, which grows roughly three-quarters of India’s apples, harvested more than 21 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.
Yet India imported close to 5.6 lakh tonnes of apples, equal to a fifth of India’s domestic production, during the same period for an import bill of $418 million.
The import bill has risen almost fortyfold from under $10 million 20 years ago.
Set those numbers side by side and two questions surface that most coverage steps around: if India is growing record quantities of apples, why is it importing more of them than ever?
