The small hamlet of Chibinang, about 90 kms from the town of Tura in West Garo Hills Meghalaya, is a scene of frenetic activity. Trucks line up the dusty roads adjoining the main market and trade is brisk. For three months within the year, June to August, the village will remain a spectacle of activity that will even stretch through nights. The reason for the activity – the pineapple season has begun.
Chibinang has always been famous for the pineapple trade with even Dabur working with a local factory for the procurement of the fruit, given the organic nature of the produce in Meghalaya. The area around the village has been producing the fruit for decades now and traders await the three months when they move into neighbouring villages and buy the fruits from locals. The same goods are then sent to the rest of the country through either the Brahmaputra to Dhubri in Assam and beyond or transported to Goalpara from where it goes by train to everywhere else.
