KOHAT: Though guava is the delicacy of Kohat, people here have to drink its juice imported from abroad and factories away from the area. Also, no facility is available to the people to even keep the short-lived fruit fresh for the next day.

As a result, half of the fruit rot and was destroyed even after selling a lot of it at exorbitant price in Peshawar where people prefer to buy Kohat guava at any price. It fetches double the price in Peshawar and is sold for Rs150 per kilogramme.

The people have little knowledge about squeezing it and making its squash to have a fresh juice of the fruit straight from the orchard. The fruit is said to be rich with calcium, phosphorous, nicotinic acid and soluble fiber.

The harvest made in the evening is sweeter and its life is also long. Guava orchards grow in areas where groundwater level is high.

The fruit of Kagahzai on Hangu Road and Tanda Dam is costlier than that produced in Jarwanda and areas near Bannu bypass, Rawalpindi Road in Kohat. With the passage of time the orchards in Jarwanda and Bannu bypass were being crept up on by houses and commercial plazas courtesy owners who preferred easy money.

The guava tree takes about five years to start giving fruit while the growers have to wait till then for return of their investment. But now they could erect a commercial plaza within a year and start monetary returns because of the commercialisation on Kohat-Thall highway and other major roads passing through the thick guava orchards.

The fruit is plucked by professionals who prevent it from falling on the ground and catch it in hands and then put it in cloth bags.

The high time for plucking the fruit is in the afternoon when it is gathered and packed in crates for onward delivery to local bazaars and Peshawar in the evening to save it from Sun heat.

In almost every orchard there are certain trees that produce red guava and the owners put a few of them in almost every crate during packing.

A few years ago the fruit was harvested twice a year, but the summer fruit was full of worms and was relinquished on the advice of agriculture department.

Its price during that time was not more than Rs15 per kilogrammes even in winter while in summer when its shelf life was hardly six hours it was sold for Rs3 and Rs5 per kilogramme. Now people get the packed juice round the year for Rs110 per litre.

The owners of orchards have now been demanding money from the visitors which was not the case earlier. If a family went to the orchard it was welcomed and after cooking there they were given several kilos of fruit free of cost happily.

Mahfooz Elahi who once served in the extension wing of agricultural department for the guidance of the guava orchard owners told this correspondent that he had tried to extract juice of the fruit at home. He said that one litre bottle of juice did not cost more than Rs20, but people did not invest in it.

“By making juice at home or at commercial level we can save millions spent on importing it and the investors could earn a handsome profit,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2016