For Noby Thomas of Kalaketty in Kottayam, this should have been a season of sweet returns. His 80 rambutan trees, now nine years old, have yielded seven-eight tonnes of fruit. But instead of counting profits, he’s watching traders walk away.
“They say they can’t harvest because prices in Tamil Nadu have fallen to Rs 160 a kg. At Rs 140 here, they stand to lose money,” he says.
The numbers explain their reluctance. Labour charges for harvesting, the nets needed to protect the fruit, and transport costs push their outlay to Rs 170-180/kg. That means they must sell at around Rs 200/kg just to break-even.
Noby says the crisis is widespread. He points to Suresh, a veteran farmer from Pinnakkanadu with 10 acres under rambutan cultivation, who has already harvested 7,000 kg this season but is staring at a Rs 2 lakh loss. Last year, Suresh sold at Rs 135/kg. This year, buyers from Sengottai in Tamil Nadu’s Tenkasi district are pulling out, unable to match last year’s rates.
“Much of the fruit normally goes to Chennai and Bengaluru, but this time,” Noby points out, “the chain is breaking at our gates.”
Kerala’s rambutan story is a curious mix of boom and bust. A once-exotic fruit, it has become one of the most lucrative crops in the state.
Renny Jacob, chairman of Homegrown Biotech and a leading voice in rambutan cultivation, calls it “Kerala’s most profitable fruit”: Even at Rs 120/kg, an acre can fetch Rs 4-5 lakh in gross income, compared to Rs 20,000-30,000 from rubber.
“One acre with 30-50 trees can yield 3,000-4,000 kg. This is a once-a-year harvest that even a ‘lazy farmer’ can profit from — if the trees are cared for,” he says.
The problem is that production has surged faster than what the market can absorb. According to Renny, around five lakh trees now yield around 20,000-30,000 tonnes of fruit annually in the state.
That adds up to Rs 150-200 crore in turnover — a figure he believes can touch Rs 3,000 crore with better market access and value-addition. But this year, the economics went awry. Intermediaries, who usually buy out farms before the season, offered Rs 140/kg to farmers — up from Rs 120/kg last year — betting on strong sales. Then the cost of nets spiked due to shortages, pushing up their operational costs. “To make money, they’d need to sell at Rs 300/kg. At today’s prices, they’re stuck,” Renny says.
Some retailers have priced rambutan at Rs 300-350/kg, out of reach for most buyers. Lulu Hypermarket, for example, raised prices from Rs 175–200 to over Rs 300/kg this season.
“At that price, consumers buy half of what they used to,” says Renny. “We should bring the price down to Rs 200/kg for a win-win. Even at Rs 100/kg, demand will go up tenfold.”
Farmers like M C Saju of Koothattukulam concur. He says many smallholders with just five-ten trees can’t afford nets or find buyers.
“We need to make rambutan affordable, like apples or grapes at Rs 100/kg. At Rs 50/kg, a farmer still profits — a single eight-year-old tree can yield 300 kg, worth around Rs 45,000,” he points out.
The glut is partly driven by the crop’s popularity as a ‘Plan B’ for rubber farmers and the hype from YouTube farming channels. Now, with nearly a million trees at various stages of growth, supply will only grow. Renny warns against seeing intermediaries as villains.
“They’re a necessary evil — without them, farmers can’t move large volumes. Rambutan is perishable; you have to sell at Rs 100-120/kg before it’s too late, or you risk a distress sale.”
There’s still gold in the trees — the fruit sells in Delhi at Rs 400-500/kg for Thai imports and can thrive in Kerala’s climate. But farmers and traders will have to adjust expectations, cut prices, and find new markets if they want the boom to last.