India is expected to become the world’s third largest economy by 2050. A free trade deal now would have major implications for Canadian farmers.
Western Producer reporter Mary MacArthur explores what could become one of Canada’s largest trading partners. Check out her blog here.
CHANDIGARH, Punjab – Meghraj knows he can make more money elsewhere, but his heart is in selling fruit.
Across India are millions of entrepreneurs like Meghraj who stand by the side of the road each day selling from wooden carts full of fresh fruit and vegetables. Few people buy their fruit from the ever increasing number of large North American type grocery stores.
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With dicey power supplies to keep food fresh, the majority of Indians still buy their fruit and vegetables from road and streetside sellers.
Meghraj, 20, bought his mobile fruit stand about two months ago for about $160.
Each day, he pays about $113 to restock his cart with the tasty guava picked from an orchard in a nearby village.
Speaking through an interpreter, Meghraj said he makes up to the equivalent of $4.50 in profits daily.
It’s the trade he learned from his father before buying his own cart.
“It’s a little less profit than other jobs, but it’s what I enjoy doing. I’ve been doing it since childhood,” he said.
Beside Meghraj is an apple seller who buys five boxes of apples daily to sell in his cart. The apples are graded by the apple seller, who charges more for the better apples.
The apple and guava sellers join an orange seller, parking their fruit stands in front of a shop owned by a wholesaler.
Using his truck, the wholesaler makes a 300 kilometre trip, twice a week, to buy oranges for the fruit stand. He charges five cents per kilogram of fruit for delivering it to the stands and estimates the sellers make about 11 cents per kg.
It’s the beginning of the fruit season. By March, most of the fresh fruit is finished and the fruit sellers will find another crop to sell from their fruit stands.
