Srinagar, Aug. 17 -- A number by itself tells you little.

Say that Kashmir grew 21.10 lakh tonnes of apples this season and the figure sounds impressive until you place it beside Himachal Pradesh, which grew only 6.47 lakh tonnes on land barely two-thirds the size of Kashmir's 172,000-odd hectares.

Put the two side by side and a sharper picture forms: Kashmir supplies roughly 70 percent of India's apples, Himachal supplies about 20 percent, according to figures compiled by the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service and India's Commodity Board.

That dominance should mean leverage, but instead it means exposure.

When national demand softens even slightly, the region carrying the heaviest share of the market absorbs the heaviest share of th...