Mango may turn dearer on low output

The mango season, which is to take off in the next couple of weeks, will see the Banganapalli variety turning dearer due to low production.

Traders in Indoor, Agra, Delhi, Nagapur, Mumbai and Ahmedabad offered Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 a tonne for the fine quality.

Even in Hyderabad, they offered the same price in the first week of April. However, the price has now come down to Rs 20,000-25,000 a tonne due to poor quality and untimely harvesting.

As the price was so high, local traders harvested the unripe fruit and dumped it in the market to make a fast buck.

"This year the crop has been damaged due to the unseasonal rains. However, 50-60 per cent of the crop is good. It will get good price in both the domestic and foreign market.

Unfortunately, farmers and local traders are resorting to early harvesting. The unripe fruit is getting damaged and losing its price. They are more worried about the possible high speed gale that occurs in April and May," said horticulture deputy director D Suhasini.

Mango gardens of all varieties are spread over 65,650 hectares in Krishna district, followed by Chittoor with 61,407 ha, Khammam (45,435 ha) and Vizianagaram (40,985 ha).

The fruit is also grown partially in Nellore, West Godavari, East Godavari, Mahabubnagar, Kadapa and Ananthapur districts.

The average yield for mangoes is 8.6 tonne a hectare, if weather supports. But, this year, due to the untimely rains at the time of flowering, the yield is expected to come down to 6-6.5 tonne a hectare.

As far as exports are concerned, this year the horticulture department is expecting to push 70-80 tonnes.

"The export is mostly to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong as the US has several restrictions. Even the freight cost to the US is on the higher side, which is why the traders opt for other countries," she added.

While 11.08 tonne was exported in 2007-08, it went up to 100.2 tonne in 2008-09. This, however, declined to 76 tonne in 2009-10 due to poor quality, Suhasini said.